At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, the curators are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again: What were humans really like? What did they wear, what did they eat, how did they die out? By casting us into the far future, Jordan Harrison’s new play gives us an uncanny view of the present moment, as we straddle the analog world that was and the post-human world to come.
The Antiquities is a most perceptive and hauntingly cautionary tale, and it owes much to the production values crafted by the entire creative team. Each of the exhibits, expertly staged by co-directors David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan, captures just the right sense of otherworldliness, very much like a “Twilight Zone” episode. And it’s all greatly enhanced by Tyler Micoleau’s muted lighting and Paul Steinberg’s minimalist settings.
Some of these scenes are beautifully drawn, with the wit, pith and undercurrent of sadness characteristic of Harrison’s best work. (The opportunities and perils of A.I. as human companions were the subject of his play “Marjorie Prime,” a Pulitzer finalist in 2015.) The boy who gets the prosthetic finger is left at the workhouse because his family can no longer afford him. (Father to son: “Well. Goodbye, Tom. I don’t expect I’ll see you again.”) The reason the 1987 boy is grieving is that his bachelor uncle was buried that day. We don’t need to be told what he died of. But other scenes, like one set in 2076, when the last humans live as outlaws in a dystopia of semi-robot overlords, feel more like place fillers, necessary as steps in Harrison’s timeline but not compelling in themselves.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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