Robots vs Fake Robots
If you didn’t know better, you’d swear you were in a trendy Hollywood nightspot—lots of beautiful people with outsized egos, an unfailing techno beat, and a bevy of people trying to pretend they’re something they’re not. This all-too-familiar spectacle, however, takes place not in Hollywood, but a short drive down the I-10 at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica where the “Push to Talk Theatre Company” is staging “Robots vs. Fake Robots.”
Set in the year 6000 after toxic gases have made the earth’s surface virtually uninhabitable, playwright David Largman Murray has penned a most interesting show where robots have taken over and relegated humans to an inferior status. Referred to as “peetles,” humans are rudely dismissed by the robots as not being vital or sexy enough. The humans even have an abhorrent smell that makes them repellent to the robots, and incapable of hiding their identities as living beings.
The production plays out like a Robert Palmer video with tall, sexy robots devoid of anything resembling personality, dancing and sashaying with their equally attractive metrosexual male counterparts. Indeed, the life of a robot seems to be all play and no work, an interminable marathon dance session intended to illustrate their dynamic and invigorating lifestyles. The dance sequences are quite a sight to behold as choreographer Jennifer Li, lighting designer Jacob Mitchell, and sound designer Rani de Leon collaborate to create a visual and aural feast of gorgeous dancers performing intricate moves.
In contrast to the high energy flamboyance of the robots, humans have a much more wearisome existence. Afflicted, as always, with the condition of wanting what they can’t have, humans are continually trying to become, or pass themselves off as, robots. Enter Joe (Steven Connell), a disaffected human who will do almost anything to leave his world behind and join the robots. He enlists the aid of Knee Pad (a wonderfully nuanced performance by Greg Crooks) who succeeds in blending Joe into the robots’ world.
But at what cost has Joe crossed over? In becoming a robot, he abandons not only the human race, but his own humanity as well. Joe’s quest for beauty and extravagance ultimately drains him of all he is and all he has. Joe can no longer be, as one robot puts it, a human “infected by love, guilt, memories, and old age.”
Robots vs. Fake Robots is showing at The Powerhouse Theatre through March 15th with shows on Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm, and additional 10:30 shows on February 23rd, March 1st, and March 8th. Get tickets by calling 310-396-3680 xt. 3, or by going to www.powerhousetheatre.com.