Are we extra than simply our recollections? It's an enormous query, but it solely accounts for one of many many concepts being kicked round in Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play.

A decade after its L.A. premiere and some years faraway from its massive display adaptation, Marjorie Prime has lastly arrived on Broadway — and it has a lot extra haunting questions the place that got here from.

Entering into the Hayes Theater, the science fiction of all of it could come as a shock. The present has all the trimmings of a typical household drama: an ailing mom, a tortured daughter, an impenetrable rift between them, a long time value of household ache, and a partner doing their very best to carry everybody collectively. However there's one particular component to intensify this household's troubles: the existence of Primes, AI holograms that start as a malleable clean slate and step by step tackle the identification of a deceased cherished one, to maintain their reminiscence alive.

The Black Mirror-esque tech is supposed to assist folks grieve, and once we first meet Marjorie (the inimitable June Squibb), that's simple sufficient to know. She's sitting on a sofa, gently reminiscing with Walter (Christopher Lowell), who seems to be her husband, however is slowly revealed as a holographic model of him — Walter Prime. He coaxes her into consuming some protein, reminds her of a treasured reminiscence, and brings out her playful facet. It stands in stark distinction to later interactions along with her daughter, Tess (Cynthia Nixon). Pressure ripples between them: unstated historical past that finds Tess nonetheless stewing, at the same time as she takes care of her aged mom.

Tess is helped by her husband Jon (Danny Burstein) and the love between them is palpable, although they’ve very totally different concepts of how greatest to maintain Marjorie comfy. When her reminiscence slips, ought to they let Walter Prime step in to remind her? Ought to they feed him recollections that she's already misplaced? Ought to that embody the worst particulars of her life — or does she should lastly escape her best heartbreaks? And the questions spiral on.

At one level, Marjorie proposes an edit to an present reminiscence: What if her husband proposed in a extra romantic venue, with a extra romantic backdrop? She tells Walter Prime to feed her a greater model of their engagement. It isn't what occurred, however as soon as she forgets the reality, what's so flawed about creating a brand new, higher actuality? "By the subsequent time we discuss, will probably be true," she tells her holographic husband.

These chilling moments are Marjorie Prime at its greatest. Although it lasts a short 80 minutes, the play has loads of time to stoke uncomfortable ideas. It's a daunting thought experiment: a provocative play of concepts. The wheels are all the time turning, the subtext is layered with much more questions, and even the one-liners pack a weighty punch.

However there's an emotional coldness to all of it: and maybe that detachment is by design. In any case, the play's key character is a supercomputer, absorbing data and throwing it again in our faces. After which there's Marjorie's fading reminiscence, one other barrier distancing her from the world. Most of our time is spent with the characters sitting round, reminiscing and filling within the gaps of the historical past that makes them who they’re — to one another and themselves. And whereas these scenes could be fairly affecting, it's laborious to forge our personal connections with these characters when the majority of their story is so rooted up to now.

That's to not say the story is devoid of emotion. Burstein particularly grounds the manufacturing, with a heart-on-his-sleeve portrayal of Jon. His jovial power fills the room, as does his annoyed anguish as life with the Prime grows impossibly complicated.

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He's accompanied by loads of expertise. Squibb is notably making historical past along with her newest return to stage: at 96, she is the oldest performer to open a Broadway present, however her work is sharp as ever. She's sly with biting one-liners and alert to the massive flip that comes within the play's second half. Elsewhere, there's a coldness to Nixon's Tess, but it surely doesn't hold her from packing a painful punch when the second comes.

Lowell, who made a formidable Broadway debut in final yr's Cult of Love, units an unsettling tone. His Prime is a reassuring presence for Marjorie, an apparent consolation to her of their quiet moments alone. You’ll be able to nearly overlook he's a newly-formed model of her husband, cobbled collectively by fragmented recollections. Virtually. As a result of there’s nonetheless that unnatural, inhuman component peeking just under the floor.

That feeling is complimented by the manufacturing, which fuses intelligent scenic design and lighting to create eerie transitions that talk the passage of time and wordlessly progress the story with visuals alone. It's no shock Marjorie Prime shares a lighting designer (Ben Stanton) with Maybe Happy Ending, the opposite sci-fi saga taking Broadway by story. Each embrace theatricality, guaranteeing that the script isn't doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of big emotional shifts.

For all of the grief boiling over in Marjorie Prime, I walked away craving to be extra completely wounded. However Harrison's script is much less involved in piercing the guts than it’s the thoughts. It's a lot too busy prodding on the bounds of humanity. What makes us who we’re? How a lot can we depend on expertise? Can it soothe us, numb us, substitute us utterly? Marjorie Prime presents few clear-cut solutions, however does make one factor clear: There isn’t any alternative for the facility of human love and connection. And the absence of that’s what retains this present from actually leaving a mark on its crowd. Grade: B

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