(seen at the afternoon preview performance on 25th April 2024)
For those who don’t know, author Philip K. Dick is a legendary science-fiction writer. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” is better known as movie “Blade Runner,” while “Minority Report” itself was a 2002 film hit for Tom Cruise.
For those who switch off at the words “science-fiction,” turn your matrix right back on. You will not want to miss this.
David Haig has taken a new approach, working with director Max Webster and designer Jon Bausor to create an adaptation which works on stage. They have succeeded beyond wildest expectations.
This is smart, thrilling, deeply shocking, yet equally deeply human with a streak of off-beat humour. All of it cracks along at high-speed cinema pace in around 90 roller-coaster minutes.
Julia is CEO of “Pre-Crime.” It’s the near future, and there is no more murder thanks to her corporation. A small implant behind every citizen’s ear decodes their brain pattern each day. If the brain indicates the owner will commit murder in the coming 24 hours, a forcefield detains them until enforcement officers can take them into safe custody.
The system is infallible... and Julia’s pride in it unshakable as her opening lecture reveals (for the record, smart-alec seated behind the monkey, she IS correct on the amygdala). She is handed the day’s report live as she speaks. Suddenly, she is not so certain.
To say more would absolutely spoil the next 80 minutes, to state that there is far more to the play than you think and that it is expertly resolved in the smartest written fashion should be sufficient to have you calling the box office now.
Between Bausor’s futuristic yet recognisable set (the monkey has already put a bid in for the taxi when they have finished with it), Tal Rosner using video as it should be – a smooth part of the piece not a substitute for bland scenery.
With Jessica Hung Han Yun doing wonders with laser and LED to make “Star Trek” look Victorian and Nicola T.Chang giving us the sounds of the environment with added wit, this is way above any play the monkey has seen presented off-West End.
And that is before we come to the cast. Jodie McNee’s Julia is confident, gregarious and the very human face of a robotic corporation. Her subsequent emotional arc is astonishing, impeccable timing unleashed in a role requiring her to be on stage for almost the entire performance.
David is Julia’s virtual assistant. Tanvi Virmani is the dream we all have to hope will happen when they become more than a voice. Virmani is everything Julia requires, there at the right moment with the right calculation – and reacting brilliantly to threats from both the outside and her creator. Writer Haig gets a couple of excellent laughs from dialogue Virmani knows how to play to maximum effect.
There is more than a touch of “Coronation Street” Roy Cropper about George, Julia’s older genius scientist husband. Nick Fletcher’s unworldliness is similar to Cropper, what transpires the complete opposite. Fletcher clearly knows who George is, and delights in surprising us.
The same holds for shadowy Ralph. Nicolas Rowe ensures the sleek exterior is something for us to be conscious of throughout, and delivers when more is required.
Equally shadowy, Xenoa Campbell-Ledgister hides her own motives, while Roseanna Frascona delivers heartbreak as Ana in a moving scene.
As Blythe Stewart’s choreographed moments mesh with Lucy Hind’s movement direction, the result is a company weaving visual magic director Max Webster never allows to dissipate even when bringing us in to land.
More accessible than “Stranger Things” to a far wider audience, hopefully a West End house will be found and the show finds the wide international audience it should by rights capture.
This might be a minority opinion, but it is the correct one.
5 stars.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner. Used by kind permission of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.