Minority Report by David Haig. Based on the novella by Philip K Dick. The Lyric Theatre, King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 to 18 May 2024. 4✩✩✩✩. Review: William Russell.
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner.
Minority Report by David Haig. Based on the novella by Philip K Dick. The Lyric Theatre, King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 to 18 May 2024.
4✩✩✩✩. Review: William Russell.
“Splendidly staged version of a classic sci fi story.”
Visually stunning this adaptation by David Haig of the novella by Philip K Dick is a thrilling and in this day when Aritificial Inteligence is an issue even more relevant than when Dick first wrote it. There have been changes and forget the 2002 Spielberg film which was basically a vehicle for Tom Cruise backed by an all star cast who all had to be given moments and extended it to over two hours in length. Haig sets his tale in London in 2050, a world in which it is possible to prevent murder because people have a chip installed in their necks which is monitored and can tell if they are planning violence. It lasts a brisk 70 minutes. The best thing about the evening, although the cast led by Jodie McNee as Dame Julia, head of Pre Crime, the system which controls the population, works hard to suggest that instead of a handful of people there really are hordes of police and rebels against the system, is the set. Production designer Jon Bausor, video designer Tai Rosner and Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun have created a world that looks like Canary Wharf gone mad and allow Dame Julia, whose misfortune it is to discover that she is a victim of her own system and must avoid being taken out before she kills someone, and those who help or hinder her to roam round. It is all very camp, there are some knowing jokes – the android who is her special friend is threatened with being demoted to Alexa at one point for instance – but that is nothing new in science fiction. It is rare to see a sci fi story on stage and this production, which started in Nottingham and Birmingham, manages to be exciting, to set out the problems of a world in which artificial intelligence has become a danger to liberty even when used to keep society safe well enough – there is plenty to talk about afterwards. Admittedly on the run Dame Julia does escape by the usual means but people in such films are always going into ventilation shafts or scaling very high buildings by implausible means. Haig has made his points well enough and done no disservice to his source. Perhaps the biggest problem is that Dame Julia is not someone on the run one feels any empathy with, nor indeed with her husband who helped her, her own android, or the leader of the rebels against Pre Crime, whereas when Cruise or Arnie fight to survive in their sci fi movies we do. But Haig has made the points he wanted to make about society and AI and his decision to change the central protagonist into a middle aged woman is interesting in itself. But above all this production, a splendidly staged version of a classic sci fi story, is proof that out there in the regions theatre is alive and kicking and its arrival in London is to be welcomed.
Cast
Chrissy Brooke – Christina.
Ricardo Castro – Sergeant Harris.
Danny Collins – Fleming.
Nick Fletcher – George.
Roseanna Frascona – Ana.
Jodie Mcnee – Dame Julia.
Nicholas Rowe – Ralph.
Tanvi Virmani – David.
Creatives
Director – Mark Webster,
Production Designer – Jon Bausor.
Video Designer – Tai Rosner.
Lighting Designer – Jessica Hung Han Yun.
Composer & Sound Designer – Nicola T. Chang.
Movement & Intimacy Director – Lucy Hind.
Fight Directoirs – Rachel Brown-Williams & Ruth Cooper-Brown.
Dialect Coach – Salvatore Sorce.
