{"id":19023,"date":"2020-02-14T10:15:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T18:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19023"},"modified":"2020-02-14T10:15:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T18:15:05","slug":"play-shows-love-in-the-age-of-robots-just-in-time-for-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/02\/14\/play-shows-love-in-the-age-of-robots-just-in-time-for-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Play shows love in the age of robots, just in time for Valentine’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was released from UVic\u2019s Phoenix Theatre after last night\u2019s presentation of Comic Potential<\/em>, I was elated. British playwright Alan Ayckbourn has woven together three solid staples for Valentine\u2019s Day: humour, love, and just the right amount of insanity.<\/p>\n

Although written in 1998, Comic Potential<\/em>\u00a0involves a timeless issue: can one properly fall in love with a robot? Or is it just artificial?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Comic Potential<\/em> is a Valentine’s Day must-see (photo by Dean Kalyan\u200b).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The play has an engaging plot: set in a near future, the audience is introduced to a movie set, and will soon realize that the actors on set are robot actors called \u201cactoids.\u201d Adam (Ciaran Volke), the nephew of the big shot who owns the TV company, is a typical target for Valentine\u2019s Day drama\u2014he\u2019s quiet, impressionable, and lonely. When Adam meets fembot actoid Jacie Triplethree (Una Rekic), he\u2019s immediately drawn to her. And why not? She\u2019s beautiful, funny, and intelligent, and she sports a lovable glitch that consists of her bursting out into gales of laughter at inopportune moments. In fact, she has been labelled as \u201cdefective\u201d and it\u2019s made clear that she\u2019ll be melted down by the ruthless and savage studio director, Carla Pepperbloom (Sarah Hunsberger), if Adam doesn\u2019t rush in an save her from the certain clutches of evil.<\/p>\n

Bearing all this in mind, it\u2019s easy to think that Comic Potential<\/em>\u00a0is a light-hearted production, full of good, wholesome spirit, but lacking in depth. Not true. Throughout the story, Adam and Jacie discover their love for each other, while learning how to make that work\u2014after all, they\u2019re from different species. Both have to fight all sorts of quirks and idiosyncrasies in order to find how they meld.<\/p>\n

There are many moments of hilarity, such as when Jacie uses her charms reciting old soap-opera plots in order to distract from the fact that she and Adam have run away together. Volke and Rekic are vey good, but Rekic really dazzles, enveloping whoever is watching in her web of authenticity and vulnerability.<\/p>\n

The set, designed by Leah Anthony, is as impressive as the acting, with clean-cut corners, vibrant colours and sharp lines. And it\u2019s easy to tell that Misty Buxton\u2019s costume designs are thought through carefully in order to achieve a perfect mix of Hollywood glamour and hipster chic.<\/p>\n

Comic Potential<\/em>\u00a0is a Valentine\u2019s Day must-see. It\u2019s screamingly funny and even sports a fantastic swing dancing scene between human and fembot. Best it all, it contains the age-old conflict of true love fighting obstacles.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t lose faith in love\u2014even a human being and an automaton can make it work.<\/p>\n

Comic Potential
\n<\/em>Various times, until Saturday, February 22
\nVarious prices, Phoenix Theatre
\nfinearts.uvic.ca\/theatre\/mainstage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was released from UVic\u2019s Phoenix Theatre after last night\u2019s presentation of Comic Potential, I was elated. British playwright Alan Ayckbourn has woven together three solid staples for Valentine\u2019s Day: humour, love, and just the right amount of insanity. Although written in 1998, Comic Potential\u00a0involves a timeless issue: can one properly fall in love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19025,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19023\/revisions\/19025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}