Seen by Federica at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 13^th of August 2024

2 stars – cool experiment, but…

The fear that AI will replace human work and ‘natural intelligence’ is slithering in a growing number of fields. In honour to this, Fiasco Jones from Boilingfrogs company tried to write a romcom with AI, counting on the predictability of the genre and on recurrent similar scenes. The result is, well, surprising, especially for its unexpected charge of nonsensical humour, as set on stage under the direction of William Byam Shaw.

Two people meet and they ‘fall in love’ (in a very weird way), but their manager doesn’t allow them to be in a relationship. The plot is weak, but the enjoyable part is the juxtaposition of elements that is very often random, and gives way for amusing bits of lines and of backstory. Nonetheless, the pervasiveness of these ‘wrong associations’ made me feel lost at times, tired at others.

Unfortunately, the delivery (Maayan Amiran and Hannah Roze-Lewis) doesn’t save this crazy play. The frequent lack of energy and the attempt to naturalise such bizarre text make it difficult to concentrate on the narrative. Some technical imperfections, for example in the lights, further affect the enjoyment of the show.

At the end of the day, it is a very interesting idea that could have been developed in a more successful way. The positive takeaway is that they managed to prove that AI is not reliable when it comes to the task of writing a romcom.

13th-18th August; 1.45 pm

Running time: 60 minutes

Venue: Bedlam Theatre

Tickets and Info: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/love-is

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boilingfrogs/