Royal Court Theatre
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Although of course he isn't quite perfect. Despite being designed with the purpose of being able to have his attitudes and behaviours modified with a click of a button on the remote, (Hari and Max are able to quickly change his views on immigration to make them more PC). Jan inevitably malfunctions and the idea of a perfect son is once again destroyed. Thomas Eccleshare's play looks at the way that we strive for an ultimately unattainable perfection.
At the same time as building and creating a relationship with Jan, we also learn about Hari and Max's first son, Nick. We eventually find out that he was a drug addict, repeatedly asking for money with the promise of getting better. Jan and Nick are played by the same actor (Brian Vernel), and so the distinction between them, the original son and the replacement, is not always obvious. At the beginning of the play, all of the action that does not concern Nick is inside a home which we see through a long, thin window. Different rooms come in as cardboard boxes on a conveyor belt, like an assembly line - precise and predictable. Nick is on the outside of this world , he literally stands outside this box. But, as Jan becomes more real and begins to have more of a relationship with his "parents", the absolutely ingenious set (created by Cai Dyfan) gradually lifts away piece by piece, and the line (both physical and metaphorical) that separates Jan and Nick becomes more difficult to see. There is one particularly tense moment, when the set is entirely open, where Nick turns into Jan and begins to malfunction.
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As well as times of tension and confusion, there is a large dose of laugh-out-loud comedy. There is a hilarious scene when Jan is first switched on and his parents are trying to get him to communicate in just the way that they want. Vernel as Jan is brilliant throughout, and received uproarious laughter from the audience as his character was first being programmed; he went from being in love with his room, to absolutely hating it, to "bordering on psychopathic" and then to perfect, all so quickly. Literally at a click of a button. Other comedy came from Michele Austin and Jason Barnett, playing Laurie and Paul (friends of Hari and Max). They were the pushy parents of Amy, just about coping with the struggles of a child prodigy in architecture, a national level swimmer, and a soon to be Oxford University student as their children. I think that we all know some parents like that! |
The writing was completely engaging, the performances were spot-on, the whole design was so clever, and it is all put together brilliantly under the direction of Hamish Pirie. There were even some illusions which meant that a disembodied hand could wiggle its fingers, and a head on a worktop could talk. Highly recommended.