ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
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An error occurred while searching, try again later.Predictive anti-drama
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
East is South
Hampstead Theatre, London
AI IS a grim subject. And Beau Willimon’s East is South at Hampstead Theatre does nothing to alleviate the gloom.
The play is set in a light, clean but bleak interrogation room. A lone young woman communes with herself, and possibly God, seemingly unaware that figures on a balcony watch her every move. She and a fellow systems-programmer are suspected of… well, predictable things: messing with the highly intelligent, fearsomely dangerous AI beast they’ve created, anthropomorphising it, double or triple dealing with Russia and other foreign powers, having a secret affair with one another, and potentially releasing a super-intelligence into the world at large.
A thriller possibly. If so, where’s the suspense?
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