UNION — The latest dramatic offering by Premiere Stages, the resident professional Equity company at Kean University, is “Flawless.” Written by John Wooten and directed by Joe Brancato, this story is about a confession, by a wildly successful playwright named Tess, to her former lover and down-and-out mentor, Frank, that an AI platform she’s developed and named Percy has been a big help to her career. Frank, a square and blocked writer, doesn’t like hearing this and needs convincing.
At the play’s opening, a casually dressed Tess, played by Ellen Adair, sits hunched over, typing away, with her back to Percy, a neatly dressed, erect man, played by Alexander Rios. Frank is played by Michael Frederic.
Conversing, Percy’s enunciation and butler-like demeanor is not altogether human, because he is not human. Although incarnated, we learn Percy is actually an AI platform and response on Tess’s laptop. We periodically will also see his face in a rear screen projection that is otherwise a window in Frank’s California apartment. Tess has come to visit.
The back-and-forth between Tess and Percy is entertaining and, when Percy exits, he quickly disappears through an unseen, elastic slit in the wall. Poof! What fun! Premiere Stages always has great sets and this one was designed, and the costumes, by Christian Fleming.
- So this is something of a detective story, uncovering the cheat and taking stock of the collateral damage between lovers. But with AI in the news, “Flawless” is more than that and ultimately asks: Why human frailty? Percy, after dismissing the ability of Tess, who has left Frank, comforts the stricken Frank, who is on the floor, by saying that they both have the soul of a writer. Will Frank believe for a moment this Misphistopheles? That this bundle of data entries is capable of a human thought? Wooten knows how to tell a good story.
Premiere Stages’ producing artistic director, Wooten also informed the audience that, with AI developing so quickly, he’s already had to rewrite some of the play to keep up. Keep up with what? Percy? Whatever for? Tess and Frank are the ones.
The difficulty with any play seems always to be the same: creating empathy. “Flawless” is a seductive play and the AI subject matter is interesting. Perhaps every performance should have a talkback to give the audience an opportunity to hit their reset buttons. So go see the show. It runs until Sunday, Sept. 20. Bring a few friends. To be sure, you’ll talk about it. For tickets: premierestagesatkean.com.
Photo Courtesy of Mike Peters
