Review: The Antiquities

Marcus David
February 2025

photo courtesy of Emilio Madrid

The Antiquities
The Judy Theater
January 11 – March 2, 2025

The Antiquities offers us a spectacular and chilling glimpse into the nightmarish fall of mankind. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison, and directed by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan, The Antiquities takes a thoughtful and chilling look at human innovation and where it could potentially bring us through a series of creepy, touching and at times funny vignettes based on relics housed at the Museum of Late Human Antiquities. While presented as a string of short vignettes based on each particular relic, another story is simultaneously being told, one of humanity’s demise at the hands of a sentient artificial intelligence that becomes impossible to contain.

With artificial intelligence everywhere and rumors of more sophisticated models of AI in existence that we are not allowed to see, humanity appears to be on the cusp of true machine domination… and The Antiquities is betting on it doing us all in with a new play the  master sci-fi storyteller, Rod Serling himself, might very well approve of as the theme fits neatly into Serling’s own oeuvre of stories, which he presented on his hit TV show The Twilight Zone, and as with many episodes The Antiquities could also be seen as a warning, albeit a little too late as the proverbial toothpaste is already out of the tube. What we’re talking about here is, of course the latest and greatest threat to humanity, artificial intelligence, and just the mere mention of the phrase will garner a feeling of dread in you after experiencing the wild ride through time and space that The Antiquities takes you on.

Stories of the rise of sentient machines and the fall of man are not particularly new. James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) are classic examples of this genre along with John Boorman’s Zardoz  (1974), a lesser known oddity that is proving more prophetic with each passing year. In our present time we have major figures in technology and trans humanism constantly coming up with new ways to replace humans with artificial intelligence while simultaneously trying to figure out how to put computer chips into the human brain and if something goes wrong, well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Plus they have all the money so they can survive any catastrophe, so let the experiments begin! Taking all this into account a scenario like The Antiquities doesn’t feel so far fetched and makes you wonder, are we really sleepwalking into the dystopian techno fascist realm, with artificial intelligence growing and soon to become smarter than humans, and then sentient, and then what? Will our endless quest for efficiency drive us mad and lead us to our own destruction? Is it possible that we lose control of our own invention, just as Dr. Victor Frankenstein lost control of his own creation?


“At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, the curators are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again: What were humans really like? What did they wear, what did they eat, how did they die out? By casting us into the far future, Jordan Harrison’s new play gives us an uncanny view of the present moment, as we straddle the analog world that was and the post-human world to come. Interlaying the warm fire of human existence with the unnerving chill of what comes after, nine human actors take on the roles of post-human beings who are trying to learn what they can from 500 years of civilization, weaving everyday moments into an epic story.”

The Antiquities
January 11 – March 2, 2025
The Judy Theater
416 West 42 Street
New York, NY 10036

Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison
Directed by David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan
A co-production of Playwrights Horizons,
Vineyard Theatre,  and the Goodman Theatre

For ticket information →

Cast: Cindy Cheung (Woman 3), Marchánt Davis (Man 2,) Layan Elwazani (Woman 4), Andrew Garman (Man 3), Aria Shahghasemi (Man 1), Kristen Sieh (Woman 1), Ryan Spahn (Man 4), Julius Rinzel (Boy),Amelia Workman (Woman 2)

Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater dedicated to the development of contemporary American playwrights, and to the production of innovative new work. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons’ 52-year-old mission is unique; we have distinguished ourselves by a steadfast commitment to centering and advancing the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country.

 



Comments are closed.