Writers: Harry Murdoch and G.G.
Director: Harry Murdoch
When a play lasts an hour and you are implored by the director not to tell the secrets of the big reveal which comes 15-20 minutes before the end, it doesn’t leave too much to write about. But Harry Murdoch is right: the perplexity builds and, just when you can’t see where it will finish up, an end is called to the experiment and everything is turned on its head. The play is not what the play appeared to be about at all and, Harry, your secret is safe with The Reviews Hub!
We are promised “a radical, untested theatrical experiment” – well, not really, but it certainly forces us to question taking anything at face value. Erin Keogh as Ada is apparently asleep on the floor as we enter, displaying remarkable stillness for the best part of half an hour. When she wakes, she is in a strange room with no doors, wearing clothes not her own. The number 30 is displayed on a large screen in the otherwise empty room.
A voice comes over the speaker to say that, working from the assumption that she is not human, each day of thirty she will be given some task to prove her humanity. Her reaction is suitably indignant, but, as the days pass (we are only given a sample), she not only gains competitive confidence, but speaks in an ever more formal academic manner. She is also unduly troubled by a lie: after a few days refreshments are brought in by a man, Harry, who claims to be separate from the controlling voice – there are, in fact, only two of them, Ada and Harry.
Harry becomes more human as the days pass, Ada more stiffly formal. Finally, as a game of snakes and ladders breaks down into chaos, Ada terminates the experiment at the halfway stage – and that’s when we learn what it’s all been about.
Keogh, with contradictory backgrounds and no emotional hinterland, is excellent as Ada, playing each line, each expression, on its merits. Murdoch is, to some extent, playing himself and does so convincingly. The unnamed technician provides an at times fascinating commentary on the screen.
Harry Murdoch’s basic idea is highly original and, to an extent it works, though the play will need a deal more meat if it is to succeed beyond an over-enthusiastic university audience. Perhaps he could use his undoubted wit to think of diverting tasks for Ada to prove her humanity in those early scenes. He made no bones of the fact that this is work in progress; hopefully no one will give away the secret before the new improved Ada Isn’t Alive takes to the stage.
Reviewed on 10th April 2026
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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6
