Buy cheap tickets for The Lion King
Instructions

This incredible show is mind-bogglingly thought-provoking; it is also a lot of fun. It begins as a riff on Nassim Soleimanpour’s acclaimed play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. Each day a lone actor who has not seen the show or read the script gets onto the stage to perform the script’s instructions live in front of an audience. All the actor will know in advance – like us – is that the play is something to do with AI.

This play is a bejewelled puzzle box

Like Soleimanpour’s play there is enormous fun in the way our reaction to the lines and jokes have been predicted in advance by the playwright (Nathan Ellis). There’s a leisurely segue into a play within a play, as the actor plays an actor being filmed auditioning for the lead role in a formulaic RomCom. The unseen Director instructs the actor to perform a whole range of emotions and to give multiple readings of a cliché-ridden declaration of love.

Joy! The actor gets the part! But then the actor can’t get any information about when filming is to begin…

But then… the film is released. And despite never being called for filming, the actor on the screen is the same actor as the one who took the audition.

But then… as the play progresses attitudes start shifting. We move from outrage at the way the actor has been cheated by an AI replica to thinking it is quite an efficient process really. A lot less trouble than actually filming.

But then… as the play refers back to the audition film, weren’t all those actorly emotions just responses to instructions anyway? What is the difference compared to an image generator doing it?

But then… we see the chat show promotional circuit. The actor comes out with the clichés we’ve heard a thousand times before: how great the director was to work with, how the experience has been life changing. It might as well be an AI speaking…

But then… we think of our own responses to the performance – responses predicted by the script – and things become a little troubling…

This play is a bejewelled puzzle box. A reversed Turing Test; the play’s great trick (if it is a trick) is to make us question how far a human is different from a computer. Yet ironically, each audience member will see something else in the box. And ironically, each actor will put something else into it.

A must-see for anyone interested in acting, theatre technique, technology, philosophy, the forthcoming redundancy of the human race or anybody wanting a good laugh.

Visit Show Website

Reviews by Mark Harding

Multiple Venues

Don Pasquale

★★★★
C ARTS | C venues | C alto

The Faustus Project

★★★★
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila

Things We Will Miss

★★
theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall

Cabin Fever

★★★★
Paradise in Augustines

Three of a Kind – A New Musical

★★★

Since you’re here…

… we have a small favour to ask. We don't want your money to support a hack's bar bill at Abattoir, but if you have a pound or two spare, we really encourage you to support a good cause. If this review has either helped you discover a gem or avoid a turkey, consider doing some good that will really make a difference.

You can donate to the charity of your choice, but if you're looking for inspiration, there are three charities we really like.

Mama Biashara
Kate Copstick’s charity, Mama Biashara, works with the poorest and most marginalised people in Kenya. They give grants to set up small, sustainable businesses that bring financial independence and security. That five quid you spend on a large glass of House White? They can save someone’s life with that. And the money for a pair of Air Jordans? Will take four women and their fifteen children away from a man who is raping them and into a new life with a moneymaking business for Mum and happiness for the kids.
Donate to Mama Biashara now

Theatre MAD
The Make A Difference Trust fights HIV & AIDS one stage at a time. Their UK and International grant-making strategy is based on five criteria that raise awareness, educate, and provide care and support for the most vulnerable in society. A host of fundraising events, including Bucket Collections, Late Night Cabarets, West End Eurovision, West End Bares and A West End Christmas continue to raise funds for projects both in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Donate to Theatre MAD now

Acting For Others
Acting for Others provides financial and emotional support to all theatre workers in times of need through the 14 member charities. During the COVID-19 crisis Acting for Others have raised over £1.7m to support theatre workers affected by the pandemic.
Donate to Acting For Others now

Performances

Location

The Blurb

Every day a different unrehearsed performer takes to the stage, ready to receive instructions. Line-by-line a story unfolds, and a life unspools. A new show by makers of work.txt, ***** (Guardian) Instructions is about AI, creativity and the dying days of capitalism, performed by a different actor every day. They are about to give the performance of a lifetime as the borders between reality and fiction begin to blur. By Nathan Ellis. Produced by SUBJECT OBJECT. 'God, but I do love this' ***** (Guardian). 'Brilliantly conceived and highly original' ***** (Scotsman).
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