Review: YOU & IT, King's Head Theatre
This Korean musical about AI and grief has a long way to go.
It’s not too far-fetched to think about the possibility of downloading the consciousness of a late loved one into an AI system. Seoeun Oh and Q Lee toy with this idea in their original musical You & It, but fail to string together any kind of argument in spite of having a variety to choose from. When Gyujin’s wife passes away suddenly in a violent accident, he acquires a robot made in her image. As Mina comes alive again, a series of questions surrounding morality and mortality should arise, but we never come to that point.
Debuting in London after a celebrated run in South Korea, it sees Frances Mayli McCann and Zachary Pang taking on the two-hander with charisma. The material, however, is too lacking for the duo to save the production. Starting from the predictability of the plot and diving into the quality of the writing and its utter refusal to delve into any kind of provocation, this is a subpar piece of musical theatre.
Esther Jun’s direction tries hard to add pace to the otherwise lifeless narrative, but a stingy collection of bad rhymes and trite turns of phrase weigh the vision down. The absence of dramatic tension combines with too many philosophical insecurities, too. It’s a shame, as the subject has so much to say. Oh and Lee start off with a great springboard, summoning The Modern Prometheus as a direct reference during Mina’s “regeneration”. That push is lost instantly; the script goes into a terrible tirade on men’s domestic uselessness, traditional gender roles, and codependence.
It’s only the first example of the show getting sidetracked into covering relatively peripheral tangents without analysing or challenging them. A distinct lack of investigation permeates the whole project. The story in itself presents an abundance of potential, but we simply don’t care enough about these characters and their relationship to see them through their issues. It doesn’t help that they exist in a vacuum instead of establishing a dramaturgical dialogue with their surroundings.
The logical nodes of the plot are exceedingly flimsy, with the fabric of the world-building revealing a plethora of holes upon scrutiny. Take the logistics of Mina’s presence in Gyujin’s life, for instance. The scientist who allegedly hassled Gyujin when his wife was in a coma suggests that people would be appalled at the thought of Mina’s resurrection, so she needs to be kept a secret. Yet, Gyujin and Mina seem to engage in quite a few social engagements.
Gyujin’s struggle also remains a mystery. He tells us he’s having difficulties relating his memory of Mina with the reality of her robot, but he fails to escalate the conversation to a meaningful excavation. Even the songs misfire. In lieu of propelling the action or expanding the characters’ emotional spheres, the musical numbers reiterate the platitudes of the text with an unsophisticated choice of language. The result is a shocking dearth of poetry throughout.
What should have been a provocative journey into the ethics of AI becomes a shallow rumination on selfishness. As the work has been translated from Korean, we could suggest a margin for error when it comes to semantics and musicality. This, however, doesn’t excuse the shortfalls of the material. The production looks and sounds good–Bob Sterrett and Lu Herbert design a cosy set and the cast is fabulous–but that’s not enough.
You & It runs at the King's Head Theatre until 26 September.
Photography by Danny Kaan
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