Kate Attwell Queries: “Can Love Can Survive Artificial Intelligence?”

by Barry David Horwitz

If you want to follow a hilarious comedy that pits tech life against the old-fashioned ways, Kate Atwell’s “Big Data” does the job with satire and pizzazz. BD Wong triumphs in the ultimate send up of the tech religion. Elusive and funny, Wong plays an unpredictable, wild-eyed algorithmic creature in a loud plaid suit.

As the sprightly “M,” Wong accumulates information in probing conversation with his naïve victims—like sheep to the slaughter. What could be more disruptive? Jobs fall apart, relationships crumble into turmoil, and love goes out the window. All due to a glut of info.

On a plastic stage in the shape of a gigantic, curved iPhone box with silver strips, director Pam MacKinnon and Scenic Designer Tanya Orellana have constructed a fiery and fascinating fantasy world where the present meets the future with a big crash—and lots of laughs.

M is everyone’s best friend. We keep feeding him with the numbers, names, and stats. And he relentlessly stores it all to wage war against US.

There are two couples, one gay and one straight. Both are hilarious, hectic, and harried versions of modern life. They are always on their phones, rarely raise their eyes, and never look their partners in the eye. They get snippy and short tempered and easily annoyed. Sound familiar?

Wonderful, spot-on Rosie Hallett plays clever Lucy, a high-powered eye doctor who loves working at her clinic and helping folks. But Wong as M, slyly tantalizes her with a mysterious job offer that promises long vacations and big bucks. Lucy’s partner Max (delightful Jomar Tagatac), a stay-at-home writer, feels sad and unappreciated. Max is red meat for the rapacious M, who just “pops up” at their home.

Lucy’s brother Sam (lively Gabriel Brown) is married to Timmy (fascinating Michael Phillis). But M appears at their apartment, and he sows uproarious discord amongst the gay couple, too. Now, they get on each other’s nerves. Sam is hurt, Timmy is anxious, and the third leg of their threesome turns out to be M, a major disruptor of love.

Each of these superb actors are at the top of their game. They are a joy to watch, and every decision is a surprise. Every glance is an incitement, every provocation a challenge to our comfortable ways.

Out in the country in the old-fashioned world, we find Sam and Lucy’s parents, played thoughtfully and calmly by Julia McNeal and Harold Surratt. The magnificent and messy house in the country rolls out to our amazement. The pace slows, the disruption becomes ominous.  The parents feel alienated in the new tech metaverse. And they are doing something about it. Many drastic things.

I cannot tell you what they are planning. They take a long time to break the news to our two miserable modern couples when they come to visit their old folks. Don’t miss this boffo comic send up of US–the way we are right now.

“Big Data” by Kate Attwell, directed by Pam MacKinnon, scenic design by Tanya Orellana, costume design by Lydia Tanji, sound design by Madeleine Oldham, projection design by Kaitlyn Pietras & Jason H. Thompson, at American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco. Info: act-sf.org – to March 10, 2024.

Cast: Gabriel Brown, Rosie Hallett, Julia McNeal, Michael Phillis, Harold Surratt, Jomar Tagatac, and BD Wong.

Banner photo: BD Wong, Michael Phillis, and Gabriel Brown. Photos by Kevin Berne