From: Doug Bailey (Doug.Bailey@ey.com)
Date: Fri Aug 21 1998 - 08:00:45 MDT
I'm in Edmonton for a few days on business and happened
across this review in "The Edmonton Sun", a regional
newspaper. I'm planning on seeing this show this weekend
and hopefully meeting the creators. Perhaps this is the
first Transhuman comedy?
Theatre for Tecnophiles
(c) 1998 The Edmonton Sun
An impressive offering by two young Calgarians, Shared
Accommodation is more than just a rote roommate-from-hell
story. It's about space travel, academics, using others,
remaking personalities ... and robots.
Yes, this reviewer simply must start by singling out the
robotic co-star, Act Bot 2000, for special praise. Early
arrivals at the theatre are allowed to view his initialization
process as his servomotors are activated and his actor's
warmup program loosens his lips ("Mwah! Mwah! Mwah! Hey,
man, good luck out there.'')
But once the play begins, he disappears utterly into the
role of Simon Gentle, bookish, high-strung and hostile
postgraduate student. All members of Edmonton's robotic
community - especially the mayor - should take in Act Bot
2000's work. He's easily the best robot actor since Dolph
Lundgren.
Simon's research into nanotechnology - tiny robots effecting
repairs and alterations to larger bodies - is constantly
being disrupted by his roommate O'Ryan Hauser (Jamie Northan),
a grating and ingratiating sociology student whose abuse of
etiquette, good taste and himself drive Simon to distraction.
The dynamic ("You are spiders' eggs hatching from my ears'')
is plausible and even pleasurable enough, but what takes the
play beyond sitcom territory is the solution the duo hits upon.
At a personal low ebb, O'Ryan suggests using Simon's technology
to restructure his personality.
The show then becomes a comment on science, scientific
competitions and the nature of friendship - but with many
zingers. Some of the physical humor is clumsy, and - as noted
by Sun reviewer Garnet Fraser, also in attendance - the breadth
of Northan's transformation sometimes strains credulity. But the
writing is always there, and the conclusion metes out a rough
moral justice for an odd couple that is constantly getting even.
Northan and Act Bot 2000 are promising and compatible prototypes.
Release to the mass market is recommended.
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