Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...But director Georgette Verdin sure teases out some powerful performances from actors who, I’d wager, are drawing from their own fears. Ashley Neal and Madison Hill are especially intense, Patrick Newson Jr. deliciously smug, and Collin Quinn Rice has a kind of mercilessly clinical quality that certainly fits this world. But, really, the whole cast is all in, all night long. Lucy Carapetyan plays a playwright in the rough game for 15 years or more and now faced with … this."
Chicago Reader
- Somewhat Recommended
"...But what should be terrifying feels more opaque (or ludicrous) here, because Stull’s script seems more interested in checking off boxes on what the brave new world of AI-dominated life looks like than investing in the characters. AI as a requirement for employment? Check. AI as a substitute for flesh-and-blood IRL relationships? Check. AI negating the birth of actual children? Check."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...Jackalope Theatre Company's brand new work The Singularity Play, now on view in the charming and intimate Berger Park Cultural Center Coach house, will catapult you from a gorgeous expansive and naturally beautiful lake view into an uncomfortable dark future where being human merges with artificial intelligence."
Around The Town Chicago
- Recommended
"...“The Singularity Play” at Jackalope Theatre, penned by Jay Stull and directed by Georgette Verdin, is a compelling exploration of the intersection between artificial intelligence and human emotion. Set in a nondescript Google office in Manhattan, the play introduces us to a group of actors dissecting a script crafted by an AI named Denise, who is privy to their conversations."
Third Coast Review
- Recommended
"...The play excels in the moments where the discussion around AI goes beyond the technology and enters more existential grounds. An argument between Royal (Lucy Carapetyan) and Jules (Ashley Neil) rings particularly true. Jules grows angry at Royal’s preference for the “in-world” and apparent disrespect for their humanness. Royal makes a strong case for a world without grief. Jules’ anger grows into a heated argument, and we watch their “wet ware” begin to malfunction, preventing them from fully embracing their frustration: a visual representation of how a world devoid of negative emotion would be stifling."
Chicago On Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...As Artificial Intelligence, that long-awaited and long-feared (formerly) science fiction development, inserts itself more and more into our lives, it is only logical that plays will be written about it. Why not, when we have just been through a year of Hollywood strikes stemming largely from the notion that AI might take over the jobs of writers and even actors? Will our future, which is already having its parameters defined by algorithms few of us even understand, consist of machine-driven and machine-created entertainment? That not-unreasonable fear is at the core of Jay Stull's The Singularity Play, now playing at the intimate Bergen Park Coach House in a Jackalope Theatre production, the primary conceit of which is that it is about a play written by AI, stoking our anxiety that even the arts will be overtaken by computers."
NewCity Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...In his “The Singularity Play,” now enjoying its world premiere courtesy of Jackalope Theatre, New York playwright Jay Stull manages to out-Pirandello Pirandello, crafting an ingeniously twisty, provocative meditation on artificial intelligence that takes the form of a play within a play within a darkly mysterious play-like reality game, within the play we’re watching on stage. It’s not the easiest plot to follow, but those who successfully navigate this futuristic tale’s unpredictable zigs and zags are rewarded with a powerful cautionary tale about modern techno-hubris and the dystopic implications of a programmed, fully virtual existence."
