© Ros Kavanagh, production photograph from ELIZA’S Adventures in the Uncanny Valley, L-R: Genevieve Hulme-Beaman; Amy Molloy; Dylan Tighe; Jane McGrath; Andrew Bennett
OVERVIEW
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Playwright
Eugene O'Brien Gavin Quinn
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Synopsis
In the early 1960s, MIT developed artificial intelligence software called ELIZA, its title a direct reference to Shaw’s Pygmalion. ELIZA made certain kinds of natural language conversations between humans and computers possible. But of course, intelligent response is a trick. It all has to be scripted. So how can a robot write poetry? This Eliza is sent into an anonymous motel, where she interacts with four characters who are all mysteriously booked into the same room. Some of them seem to be barely alive, others too much so, and others may not be real. The audience is an observer to a test: Eliza is both learning from and assessing these individuals. In a series of scripted scenes, they explore love, death, metaphysics, evil and evolution, probing the points in our society where boundaries may be on the verge of disintegrating: between technology and organic life, or between consciousness, non-consciousness and unconsciousness.
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Play Type
Plays General
Number Of Acts
Full-Length
Cast size
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Male
2
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Female
3
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Total
5