Review: The A.I. Play by Don Zolidis

According to his website and others, Don Zolidis is one of the most performed playwrights in American schools; with over 30,000 productions staged of his work. With The A.I. Play, his most recent work for 2024 which explores the very modern issue of Artificial Intelligence, we can see why.

Like much of Zolidis' theatre work for young people the writing is snappy and funny, and so is easily accessible for young actors; and the casting and staging considerations are simple and flexible, and so is appealing to drama teachers.

The play can work with anything from 10 actors up to 20 actors, with minimal set and props; and I would say works best from 12+years old and would resonate best with Y7/Y8. The lead role is big enough for a strong actor to be challenged, with plenty of smaller roles in support that can be double cast if desired.

Directly addressing the audience, the play begins with main character Eleanor, who goes on to tell us the story of how she used an A.I. bot to write an essay on The Great Gatsby for her, with some pretty big consequences. The play alternates between role play scenes, and direct address throughout, and the play rattles along at pace, with quick one-liners, and asides, and funny stereotype characters.

Eleanors essay is so good, that she is sent to a special school for genius children; but it turns out that every other student there also used a chatbot to get in. We meet three other students, and their AI helpers and there is some interesting potential in characterisation and staging of the Bot roles, who hand on the main characters shoulders in an ‘angel vs devil’-like fashion.

Published on the Playscripts imprint, who have a focus on school, community and young audiences; it would be perhaps unfair to say this is simple or shallow play. Their motto is ‘Entertain. Educate. Easy.’ and this is just that. But given that the playwright has written over 100 one act plays, in a way, we can tell. It seems a little rushed and formulaic, but I think it is also that point that it is short, snappy, and simple.

This is a fun play, with an important message about being yourself and not being overly reliant on technology. It would work really well as a Drama club project or a Ks3 showcase; but it is not extremely innovative.