"The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence" at Shotgun Players

Shotgun Players photo by Jessica Palopoli

This is the one I've been waiting for. I first learned of the existence of Madeleine George's play The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence when I saw it announced as a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Just the title and a little blurb about the subject matter, combined with my having seen and liked Shotgun's production of her earlier work, Precious Little, convinced me this was something I needed to read and see. Reading the script, and then seeing it read at Shotgun in the summer of 2015 (back before I wrote this blog), I knew I wanted to see it on stage very much. This is a play that is very much to my taste!

So I will freely admit to not being very objective here. I've been advocating for this play for quite some time, and my wife and I are production sponsors, so take this with however much salt you need to.

The Play

The play starts with Eliza (Sarah Mitchell), a former IBM researcher and now artificial-intelligence entrepreneur, training her latest "project," (Brady Morales Woolery) a sort of descendant of IBM's Watson (complete with references to Watson's participation in "Jeopardy"). This Watson seems like the perfect companion, curious, helpful, and able to retrieve knowledge with ease. We learn that Eliza has grand plans for this technology as a personal assistant and agent of social change.

Eliza also has an ex-husband, Frank Merrick (Mick Mize), who is fairly obsessed with Eliza. He's running for local office on a platform of "fed-uppedness," but at the moment he's having computer troubles, and has summoned the Dweeb Team to save him. Luckily, his "dweeb" is Josh Watson: competent, trustworthy, and dedicated to solving the problem. Frank decides he can use Josh for mor than computer help, and enlists him to get info on Eliza's activities.

But never fear, we need to look through time a bit, so next we're in Victorian England, where Mrs. Eliza Merrick is looking to engage Mr. Sherlock Holmes to help her understand a series of odd incidents involving her husband, the inventor. Holmes being out when she arrives, she meets instead with Dr. John Watson, who is of course competent, trustworthy, and dedicated to helping her solve the mystery.

We also meet Mr. Thomas Watson, the able assistant of Alexander Graham Bell, discussing the invention of the telephone for a radio interview.

The play weaves an intricate web of characters and traits among the Watsons, Merricks, and Elizas through the ages. We get discussions of the nature of love and attraction, training and loyalty, assistance and obsession. We investigate throughout the nature of various human relationships: what do we need, what do we want, and what are the costs? It's telling that George has subtitled this "a play about others."

I quite enjoy the way the narratives weave through time, enabling us to see the parallels and themes, and sometimes providing rather humorous chances for us to compare situations. There are some wonderfully humorous bits, as well as some touching and even shocking ones. But it is altogether a very human play, with a knack for very realistic dialogue.

The Production

The first thing you see upon entering is Nina Ball's amazing set design. I had always pictured the play being set on a very minimal stage with locations defined by lighting and maybe some costuming, but this is quite different from that! It's at once kind of Victorian, with certain distinctly period touches, but surrounded by fancy LED lights that give a very modern, computer-age feel. And though the set is not large, it has multiple clever transformations that can make it serve as a number of locations. Quite brilliant.

And I also need to mention Ray Oppenheimer's lighting (because it's still important, even critical, with this set) and Cliff Caruthers's sound and music. They both do a great job of helping to place the actors in their ever-shifting environments. There are some lovely little touches like a little waft of Billy Joel music in the background at a coffee shop (Billy Joel is, oddly, a minor plot point later). And Valera Coble's costumes really work--the Victorian pieces are lovely, and Merrick literally transitions from one time to another with a relatively minor change of costume and accent. It's pretty seamless, but it reflects the skills of both the designers and the actors that it works so well. And there's this train....

But none of this would matter if the actors weren't up to the task, and they all prove they are. Mitchell and Mize particularly benefit from having participated in the 2015 reading, so they have had plenty of time to let the roles insinuate themselves into them. The comfort shows, and both of those actors have managed to find nuances in the script that I had missed, even with multiple readings. Mitchell's Eliza manages to be both driven and logical and yet also entirely subject to her heart's desires, try though she might to invalidate them logically. And Mize finds all kinds of corners in his Merricks: pugnacious, maniacal, and yet oddly self-reflective and even tender. Although Woolery doesn't have the depth of experience with the role that his castmates have, he also has a rather more difficult part, as all four of his Watsons are quite distinct characters, yet with an underlying Watson essence that he manages to carry through. It's a rich set of characters in George's script, and the cast does a terrific job of bringing them all home.

I've had the pleasure of getting to see a rehearsal run-through, then a preview performance, and then the opening night for this show, and it's been a treat to see how the designs have come together and the cast have found their comfort zones. I didn't want to write about the show until I'd seen a "real" performance, but it's fascinating to see how even small changes to the staging or the blocking or the pacing or emphasis of the dialogue can really boost a scene and perhaps change the perception of the whole play. It's the magic of theater, and it's fun to watch!

Bottom Line

Well, you know I'm going to say I like it. But in the midst of a very heavy, difficult season at Shotgun, this play provides a fairly light and enjoyable night out, while still providing a play that is thought-provoking and timely, but also very personal. In an age (today, or the Victorian) where modernism and technology can sometimes seem like tempting substitutes for human interaction, George illustrates the trade-offs and pitfalls that may ensue from following those temptations. What is the perfect partner like? And what if they turn out to be too perfect? Or maybe what seems perfect isn't really good for you at all.

Ultimately, the play really is about others: how we value them, how we choose the ones in various phases of our lives, and why that matters. It's a terrific exploration of who we are and who we might become, and fun, too.

The play runs through September 3, though I suspect that demand will generate an extension to September 10. So gather your friends and go see it!