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I Woke Up Feeling Electric

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 6th February 2020

★★★

“a fun and imaginative take on the Sci-fi genre from first timer Robson”

How did we ever cope before the likes of Alexa and Siri being there to aid with (almost) every aspect of our lives? Some may say perfectly fine thank you very much. However, there’s no denying they are slowly taking over. Jack Robson’s playwriting debut, I Woke Up Feeling Electric, inventively looks at how they control our day-to-day in a playful yet thought-provoking way.

What if your home assistance AI was actually, well, rather human? Bertie is one of the originals. He’s been here a long time, giving his owner Charlie all the help and information he needs. He loves his job. He lives for his job. But then again, he’s never had reason to doubt it before. Until Vita comes along. Vita is a newer, more intelligent model who invades Bertie’s space and rocks his world. Trying to get to grips with his lively intruder, Bertie is forced to reassess everything he has so far come to know.

This is an interesting new take on the ‘robot resisting its job’ storyline, à la the likes of Blade Runner, and Westworld. Basing it around the home assistance type AI of Alexa and Siri, which is being used by more and more of us, makes the play far more relatable, and as a result, far more fearsome. Much in the same vain as TV show Black Mirror strives to make you feel. The humanising of AI is something that undoubtedly could happen in the near distant future.

Jack Robson plays the neurotic, uptight Bertie with perfect rigidity, much like a quintessential, English butler. Think Jeeves, with a touch of foppish Hugh Grant. A stronger change in character when rebelling against the system would have been nice to see, but this is more likely an issue with the writing or the direction. Christine Prouty has a clearer, much neater shift in persona from vivacious to clinical, reversing the trajectory of Bertie. Both actors give energetic performances that are highly watchable.

The simple yet effective set design (by Giorgia Lee Joseph) of the bare black box theatre, save for a few rows of UV, fibre-optic looking strips running along the walls and floor, evokes the technological no man’s land that Bertie and Vita are trapped inside. It immediately conjures up the stylistic motif of the classic Sci-fi movie, Tron, transporting you into a futuristic paradigm.

As well performed and as strong a concept I Woke Up Feeling Electric is, the writing doesn’t always live up to the rest. The ending feels underdeveloped and rushed, whilst the bickering between the two AI’s eeks out too long, where more emphasis on a driving plot line is needed. Regardless, this is still a fun and imaginative take on the Sci-fi genre from first timer Robson. It certainly makes your paranoia around Alexa even greater!

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Stefan Hanegraaf

I Woke Up Feeling Electric

Hope Theatre until 22nd February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story | ★★★★★ | April 2019

Uncle Vanya | ★★★★ | April 2019

True Colours | ★★★★ | May 2019

River In The Sky | ★★★ | August 2019

Call Me Fury | ★★★ | September 2019

It’s A Playception | ★★★★ | September 2019

The House Of Yes | ★★★★ | October 2019

Hamlet: Rotten States | ★★★½ | January 2020

Click here to see our most recent reviews

★★★½

“Resourcefully minimalist, the coordination is slick and the acting, confident”

Hamlet sees his dead father’s ghost, pretends to go mad with revenge, becomes mad with revenge and everybody dies. Similarly, in a whirlwind performance, ‘6Foot Stories’ encapsulates Shakespeare’s longest work in just over an hour. The play, often abridged to around three hours, weaves together a complexity of themes, motifs and psychology which, while engaging the audience, challenges them with questions on certainty vs indecision, action vs inaction, appearance vs reality. Here, branching off from the up-dating, setting-change and gender-reversal productions, it is the group of actors employed by Hamlet to reenact his father’s murder and prompt a guilty reaction in his uncle, who also witness the ghost and are commanded to incite vengeance for his death. Thereupon, the players rewrite the script they have been given and hope to fire up Hamlet’s wrath.

We are packed into their rehearsal room, walls strewn with plot and character analyses, and watch this condensed retelling as the three members of cast put pen to paper and draw up a narrative involving the prince. Sharing roles as well as technical duties, each takes their turn as sound engineer, lighting technician, stage manager…and Hamlet, while adopting the play’s other main parts: Amy Fleming is a bumbling, pipe-smoking Polonius; sensitive, fragile Ophelia is played by Will Bridges; Jake Hassam towers above as charming antagonist, Claudius. At an enthusiastic pace, we are whisked through a simplified storyline which incorporates the essential highlights of plot and script and sums up the characters. The team operates their own lighting (designed by Nigel Munson), helping to dramatise the action, and sound (Jake Hassam), sometimes enhancing, other times rather overpowering in such a small venue. Thoughtful and well-constructed, this adaptation incorporates brief touches of puppetry, live music and fight sequences, all of which keep the sense of a theatrical environment and there are occasional strong moments of drama – Ophelia’s death, for example. But it is confusing as to the motivation behind the project apart from a live summary.

The creative roots and backstory of the company are evident through the production’s original style and lively energy. Resourcefully minimalist, the coordination is slick and the acting, confident. For those already familiar with ‘Hamlet’ it is a fun view from a different angle, a catch-up of old friends. Newcomers to the work might get the gist of the tale but, then again, may not.

Reviewed by Joanna Hetherington

Photography by Matthew Koltenborn

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 6th February 2020

★★★

“a fun and imaginative take on the Sci-fi genre from first timer Robson”

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Stefan Hanegraaf

I Woke Up Feeling Electric

Hope Theatre until 22nd February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 16th January 2020

★★★½

“Resourcefully minimalist, the coordination is slick and the acting, confident”

Reviewed by Joanna Hetherington

Photography by Matthew Koltenborn

Hamlet: Rotten States

Hope Theatre until 1st February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: