Theatre Review: ” Uncanny Valley” at San Diego REPertory Theatre

In 1970, a roboticist by the name of Masahiro Mori observed that in going towards the goal of making robots appear human, there’s a point of uncertainty when we, humans,  feel unsettled by the robots. Mori calls this the uncanny valley.

In Thomas Gibbons’ futuristic play “Uncanny Valley,” presented by San Diego REPertory Theatre, neuroscientist Claire (Rosina Reynolds) works on her latest attempt at crafting a non-biological being, Julian A. As it turns out Julian A is being created for a very wealthy man, Julian B, who has found a way to forestall his demise by “downloading” the contents of his mind to this “machine.”

Rosina Reynolds delivers a near-flawless performance. The stage lighting, set, and music are incredible. Nick Cagle brings dimension to the roles of the simulated Julian and the “real” Julian.

However, there are several problematic areas in this play that originally premiered worldwide in 2014 at Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

In the beginning of the play, Julian A tells Claire that when she is away at night, there are two women that come to the office and two men that stand at the door doing nothing. Claire tells him that these are cleaning women and the two security guards have to watch them because there’s very important work that’s happening there. Julian A observes that the cleaners have accents and deduced that they’re uneducated based on that observation. She agrees and explains that she’s educated in science but there are certain people that are only educated to some level because they have a specific purpose in this world.

For a play that’s supposed to be set in the future, this conversation between a neuroscientist and a robot whose knowledge is developed through algorithms and downloads of books, is beyond ignorant. Surely, we all know that there are doctors, lawyers, scientist, and geniuses around the world. When these people visit America, for example, they’d be considered to have accents by people who live here. Within the U.S. itself, we have regional accents. It’s ignorant to state that someone is uneducated because that person has an accent.

The cleaners are also mentioned specifically as women and the security guards men. Aside from classicism and racism, are we to accept that gender boundaries will still be the norm in the future?

The other disturbing conversation is that in the beginning of Julian A’s “lessons”, he questioned why he looked a certain way; why his hair is dark and his eyes brown. In fact he asked these questions twice in the play. The only thing he didn’t question is the color of his skin. He wondered why with all the possibilities out there his hair is dark and his eyes are brown. It would have been a natural progression for him to wonder about his skin color as well.

One holds on to the hope throughout the play when these problematic conversations are to be addressed. If these issues were brought up as “food for thought”, per the play’s description, they should have been posed in a way that provokes conversation. To bring these issues to the table and not address them as part of questions about morality in the study of humanity is irresponsible, especially in the art of theatre.

Humans perceive competence by perceived status. We make snap judgments during social interactions based on race, class, age, disability, and gender which translates into stereotyping and discrimination. The robot shouldn’t have this prejudice because everything he had talked about was from a purely logical point of view during those early days of his creation. He doesn’t have the ability to “feel” happiness at this point, so how can he judge without any “downloaded” experience? He doesn’t have Julian B’s prejudices yet as a human.

Rather than addressing these issues or posing them in a provocative manner that makes the audience think and question their own prejudices, the conversations just hang in the air, leaving a bad taste. “Uncanny Valley” hardly “redefines what it means to be human in the 21st century”; it reaffirms what’s wrong with this century and, apparently based on this play, the future.

At Lyceum Space at the San Diego REPertory until May 10, 2015. Box office: 619.544.1000.