Artificial intelligence has been sold to us as the adaptive, algorithmic and autonomous system that simulates human thought processes to make our lives easier and better.
In Black Swan State Theatre Company’s world premiere Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless, the script’s relentless series of scenes compound to tell a very different tale.
WA Academy of Performing Arts graduate Will O’Mahony (August: Osage Country, Never Have I Ever, Things I Know To Be True) wrote and stars in this Black Swan commission at Heath Ledger Theatre, playing average person Pete.
Pete is someone who grew up in a time before AI and is ill-prepared for whatever tomorrow is going to bring through the evolution of man versus machine.
His decision-making leads to one downtrodden, dishevelling disaster after another, the odyssey beginning when his fiancée dumps him days before their wedding, branding him “a robot”.
When Pete turns to AI for solace and direction, the chatbot’s immediate response — 1.49 seconds to be exact — is “The best revenge is living well” but only if that was as simple as it sounded.
O’Mahony’s performance is compellingly nuanced as Pete endures an onslaught of nightmare scenarios and cavalcade of characters, expertly navigated by Tess Bowers, Nathaniel Langworthy, Steve Le Marquand and Catherine Moore, whose multiple roles require considerable transformation versatility, and copious wigs.
Rhiannon Walker’s choice of colour palette in her costume designs cleverly links each actor to their multitude of characters, while playing on the flaws and traits we have come to expect from AI imperfection — think mismatched shoe colours and missing parts.
The set design by Fiona Bruce is a wonderfully fragmented and juxtaposed space of natural and digital elements, contributing to the evolving disorientating scenarios unfolding on stage in this wild ride.
Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless sees O’Mahony reunite with director Adam Mitchell, who brings a cheekiness and lightness of touch to the one hour and 45-minute play, no interval, as it explores big ideas in between the humour and outrageously bad luck of Pete’s life unravelling across 45 chapters.
This dark comedy is incredibly entertaining and simultaneously uncomfortably accurate, hitting close to home in a world where our usefulness and value are intrinsically entwined, AI is rapidly accelerating, and too much of humanity refuses to stop and smell the roses.
4 stars
Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless is at Heath Ledger Theatre until September 20.
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