A.I Love You Review

Theatre N16 14th -24th June.  Reviewed By Jessica Brady 

Heart to Heart Theatre has arrived at Balham’s Theatre N16, in doing so they have produced a very interesting show that will make you think about mortality, love and robots.

Adam and April are a young 20 something couple in love, living together and doing what most average couples their age are. April has been specifically designed for Adam, she is A.I but is more human than most and her core purpose is to make Adam happy and they are planning a long future together but something goes wrong as April starts to shut down. April must now end her time with Adam by ‘killing herself’ and being sent back to the company that created her. Adam is adamant that April can’t leave him, he loves her and she is his possession. The couple are summoned to state their cases and the decision as to whether April is to die or carry on life with Adam is given to the audience.

This highly interactive play (I can say that truthfully as I was given a voting card with an ‘X’ on it meaning that I was in charge of counting the votes and leading a debate on the outcome for the pair with the rest of the audience) has some really beautiful performances from Eve Ponsonby (April) and Peter Dewhurst (Adam). Their chemistry is very real, electric and that draws you in to this story full force as you become invested in what is going to happen. They perform so honestly and with such passion as they argue why April should stay or go and with flash backs of how their life was before, makes the decision easy or harder as an audience member dependant on who’s side your on.

This play has been well written but I felt the decision on who would get their way in the debate was pretty clear. For me their needed to be a bit more of a redeeming quality in Adam for people to empathise with him and want to give him what he wanted, however that didn’t impact the play too much as it was still an unusual and interesting concept that I enjoyed. There wasn’t an elaborate set or costumes, just pure focus on the story which was very refreshing and the use of voice over’s to control the action was a lovely touch! A.I LOVE YOU is chance for you to really get an insight into a hypothetical but not impossible futuristic story and put questions to yourself on how to deal with the consequences of the decisions you make. Catch it at N16!