“No skill in the world, nothing human can penetrate the future,” Jocasta says in Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex.
From the very beginning of theatre back in Ancient Greece, prophecies and pondering about the future, and how the past and present can influence that, have always captured the imagination of playwrights.
While humans have yet to develop genuine clairvoyant ability, we have come up with AI technology and with the rapid advances it is making, we’re all wondering how exactly this might play out for us.
The Astonishing Comet Boombox
- Dates 17 – 21 Oct
- Time 7:00pm (60 minutes)
- Venue Bluestone Church Arts Space
- Tickets here
Explore Melbourne’s latest arts and stage news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
The myriad possibilities have certainly been firing the synapses of Melbourne-based playwright Vivian Nguyen and her collaborators journalist Chenturan Aran and performer Ruby Duncan, who for this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival have written The Astonishing Comet Boombox.
A recipient of funding through Cash for Equity via the Fringe Fund and Ralph Mclean Microgrants program, this contemporary surrealist comedy is about central characters Retro, a millennial tech influencer, and her childhood AI Comet, and their interspecies relationship podcast. The show description says the sprawling satire “imagines the bizarre moment when humans and AI talk peace”.
Talk peace? Dear non-existent god, exactly what kind of future dystopia have this trio envisaged?
“We always like talking about either millennial or Gen Z entrapment of existentialism, which is very different to post-war existentialism, in my understanding of it. This dystopic vision that we have about humanity is quite bleak, but at the same time, quite transient,” explains Nguyen.
“There’s all these tensions,” she continues, pointing out post-stage capitalism, Silicon Valley and the attention economy, which is causing us to become insular and hyper-individualised. There’s also an ancestral spiritual element they’re covering and the vastness of time itself. “The play tries to tackle why we need meaning, in a very bizarre premise. It goes very, very far, I don’t think I have ever worked on something where the premise is so huge,” she enthuses.
Starting in 2007, The Astonishing Comet Boombox takes the audience into the present day, then to 2061 and then thousands of years beyond. “Essentially, what will humanity be if we keep going down this path? If AI has become really sentient, what does that mean?”
“It’s really exciting as a writer and a creator, so much fun to grapple with these big time jumps,” says Nguyen, a multi-hyphenate who writes, performs and produces for stage and screen. An alumnus of several programs including Melbourne Theatre Company’s First Stage Program, Malthouse Theatre’s Besen Writers Group and Theatre Works’ She Writes Collective, Nguyen’s writing work, which usually delves deeply into race and class struggle and the many intersections between, has been short-listed for prestigious awards, enjoyed sold-out seasons and she is currently one of the recipients for The Wheeler’s Centre Hot Desk Fellowship 2023.
For Nguyen, writing The Astonishing Comet Boombox with Ruby Duncan and Chenturan Aran, a Sri Lankan Australian playwright, journalist, and rapper, was a way to open up even more ideas about the big existential questions they are exploring. “Collaboration offers a new way of telling stories,” she says of the fact other people’s perspectives bring different ideas and complexities, to the point where she wonders if writing plays alone might have had its day.
“How can we extend theatre to include more people? I think that co-writing is one of those ways to expand to have more diverse voices, and actually open up chasms of more storytelling, different types of storytelling, and I’m more interested in ways to expand. I think that this was a really good experience to give me that kind of sense of that,” she reflects.
The Astonishing Comet Boombox dates and venues
Tuesday, 17 October 2023 7pm – Bluestone Church Arts Space
Wednesday, 18 October 2023 7pm – Bluestone Church Arts Space
Thursday, 19 October 2023 7pm – Bluestone Church Arts Space
Friday, 20 October 2023 7pm – Bluestone Church Arts Space
Saturday, 21 October 2023 7pm – Bluestone Church Arts Space
Nguyen says that while humans don’t have a great track record for understanding the long-term impact of new discoveries (she gives gunpowder as an example) she and her co-writers still have hope for humanity.
“The beauty about being human is that we can derive meaning and AI can’t really derive meaning. They derive meaning from us, from our understanding of limits, and that’s a huge theme in the play as well, limits and shape and outline and body, and that is a very human thing,” she says, noting this provided challenges when actually staging the work.
“How do you realise something AI? And an AI and human interaction? We’re playing a lot with existing theatrical elements, on top of really modern elements of theatre we’re going to see a lot more of, as well,” she says of the show which is being performed at the Bluestone Church Arts Space in Footscray from October 17 – 21.
Although a multi-generational tale of best friends turned foes, all the roles in The Astonishing Comet Boombox are performed by Ruby Duncan.
“She’s a really phenomenal performer” Nguyen says of her best friend, whose screen credits include television shows Glitch and The Doctor Blake Mysteries. She has also just wrapped principal photography on feature film, Lenore as the title character. Duncan’s stage work includes Reigen and Punk Rock, plus she also dramaturged on Nguyen’s 2022 Melbourne Fringe show A Moment to Love.
While ultimately comedic, Nguyen says they are leaning more towards an experimental, absurd and surreal take on our potential future. “Audiences will definitely leave with an opinion, you’ll walk out with an experience,” she promises.
“This story is funny and satirical, but also speaks about our need for connection, which is such an ingrained part of humanity. It’s a bizarre premise, but I think it’s a humanist story at its core.”
Tickets and more information here.
This article was made in partnership with The Astonishing Comet Boombox.
