Review: More Life, Royal Court Theatre

Kandinsky Theatre’s More Life is a welcome addition to the canon of science fiction on stage, interrogating the ethics of what science may become capable of in the field of extending mortality. As the latest treatment of the Frankenstein legend, it’s intellectually stimulating and theatrically vibrant.

A prologue set in 1803 takes us to the public hanging of murderer George Foster, followed by the electrical galvanisation of his corpse, which the play takes as the starting point of a rush of scientific progress into the uncharted waters of revivification. The excellent six-strong cast create these scenes in highly stylised manner (cue mouth-made sound effects and group intonation) which sets an early experimental tone which is sporadically revisited, while bold sound and lighting are strong features throughout.

Fast forwarding to 2075 we find consultant Vic (Marc Elliott) supervising as the consciousnesses of dead people are downloaded into a synthetic body in an experiment to discover if science has finally defeated the grave. Alison Halstead gives a bravura performance – witty one moment, chilling the next – taking on half a dozen different personalities who Vic rejects as unsuitable subjects until we arrive at Bridget.

Although traumatised by the experience of waking from a fatal car crash decades ago to find her mind reborn into an artificial body, Bridget sparks an interest in Vic, who repeatedly turns her off and on until he’s satisfied she has the mental resilience to make her the poster girl for this game-changing new technology, which of course is expected to be swiftly monetised. Thus the questions of what it means to be human and how we should treat the digital ghosts of real people are set spinning in a rich and thought-provoking narrative.

It turns out that Bridget’s husband Harry (Tim McMullan) is still alive and has remarried, but what sort of life is he living now, and is there a place in it for Bridget 2.0?

Among the big ideas and technical razzle dazzle, Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman’s script provides plenty of moments of down to Earth levity, particularly from McMullan who mines Harry’s hapless egotism for many droll moments. There is also a poignant awkwardness in the truthfully created living situation when Bridget joins Harry and his current wife Davina (Helen Schlesinger – superbly empathetic) in a household of surreal uncertainty. It’s such everyday moments – showing the effects of seismic social shifts on ordinary people – that work the most authentically. 

A pre-interval lurch towards horror fortunately proves to be a red herring: when the focus remains on the collision of science and humanity, More Life is a genuinely triumphant contribution to this stimulating theatrical genre. A philosophical epilogue situates Bridget as a vanguard of progress, leaving us to ponder – as the best speculative dramas do – whether the story is a hopeful omen or a disturbing warning for the future…

Written by: Lauren Mooney, James Yeatman
Directed by: James Yeatman
Produced by: Royal Court Theatre in association with Kandinsky Theatre Company

More Life plays at Royal Court Theatre until the 8th March.