Cockpit Theatre – 23 June 2024
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
3***
It is a real treat getting the opportunity to see a new science fiction play, and Tani Gill’s Jupiter’s Ghost is a solidly entertaining piece exploring The Last Spark of Humanity – familiar themes of consciousness, humanity and morality.
Sam Lucas Smith’s ominous voice-over relates the destruction of Earth and humanity’s merging with AI to create a race of synthetic hybrid humanoids. Alone on a spaceship, Dr Crete (Conor Pavitt) is obsessively working on human clones to rebuild a new Earth, but is this an authorised experiment or a solo mission? Crete’s teenage son, Jove (Jack Chambers), is bored, frustrated and curious about Crete’s latest clone – Jupiter 101 (Olivia J Knight). Jove’s disgust at humanity, knowing what they did to each other and their planet, fades as Jupiter becomes his obsession too.
Earlier experiments are brushed over, but Lola Kinard’s wonderful opening dance becomes clearer as a failed clone who gets weaker as her spark of humanity fades. Also on board is CAII, an AI assistant (Madison Lazarus), and the omnipresent Mother (Hannah Turner) – an enigmatic figure only sensed by Crete and Jupiter.
Gill directs her play with an intuitive flow through episodic encounters between the characters – with the obligatory Star Trek door opening sound signalling entrances and exits between chambers. Rather than making Jove’s origins mysterious, Gill makes this obvious from the beginning of the play with many verbal and physical clues, building the audience’s sympathy for the young man in his ongoing quest for the truth and cementing the expectation of the unavoidable tragedy to come.
Jove, and eventually, Jupiter are the only characters who speak openly and clearly, contrasting wonderfully with Dr Crete and the AIs – who give the bare minimum of necessary information. Crete and Mother’s conversations are peppered with loaded references to the past that never quite get explained, creating a Dr Frankensteinesque aura around him as he fights to save his son.
The fantastic cast give their all, adding extra layers to Gill’s words with beautifully judged physical performances, and Neel Murgai’s atmospheric music creates a weirdly intense atmosphere around the dance sections.
Gill’s play is timely as governments still ignore data about environmental damage and questions and warnings about the use of AI are prevalent; while revealing the truth so soon makes the audience complicit in the desperate but dubious moral choices made by Crete. Jupiter’s Ghost is a smart and often lyrical play that is well worth seeing.