Feel_Good

4⭐⭐⭐⭐

Written by Amy Conway

Directed by Ben Standish

Henry unlucky in love, living in a student style flat, dirty laundry, a sock by the couch, empty food wrappers and most tellingly a large poster of La Dolce Vita. Age wise he is quite a bit a bit older than the flat portrays. 

The doorbell rings and robot sex doll Liz arrives dressed in a latex cat costume complete with a box of sex aids and “Joystick,” a computer tablet with 100’s of settings to personalise her.

We find out Liz is an old college girlfriend of Henry’s and he has never got over the break-up.

A late night with a few drinks has prompted him to take a totally free trial of an AI powered Sex Aid, fashioned to look exactly like Liz.

Liz played by Anna Russell Martin is fantastic playing the robot, jerky, with stilted voice pattern, almost like a sexy co-pilot. Her observations are funny and still robotic. 

Once they “pair” like a Bluetooth- headset she becomes more real. Her actions more fluid with a normal voice pattern. 

Sam Stopford is excellent as lovelorn Henry trying to get his head round Liz suddenly back in his life but much more compliant, he even adjusts her settings to be more like the real Liz 60% more argumentative but only reducing the horniness by 10%. 

Amy Conway has written a terrific script exploring the use of AI. Most of us use it daily, I will ask it to check for spelling errors and give me a word count of this review. 

What makes this comedy become scary is when you realise how much people can get from your online profile. I post pictures, my interests, lifestyle and political inclinations are all there for hackers to see. Most people can admit to the same. 

I have seen programmers put words in my mouth in the space of 10mins that family would be unable to spot it’s wrong.

This is highlighted in the script when real Amy comes to call, realising she has been hacked and turned into an AI sex doll she wants to warn Henry as the image of her in the cat suit came from an old Halloween picture he also featured in. 

Ben Standish really understands the piece and manages to shift the” Ann-droid” style sit-com comedy to a clever warning with ease. 

Probably the most sobering statistic in the play is 96% of all deepfake is of women and girls.

There are some brilliantly comic lines, the best being when Henry finally plucks up the courage to kiss Robot Liz the free trial runs out. Exactly as any “free” app for your phone does. 

Heather Grace Currie has also designed a gorgeous flat set, with some lovely lighting by Ana Reid from actual household lamps. 

What will happen when she finds out the doll is in the flat?

I won’t reveal the end in the hope the play gets re-done soon.