Ben
Brantley

October 23, 2017

His timing, you must admit, is inspired, and if his cylindrical silhouette means he lacks a matinee idol’s profile, he still has the presence of a Barrymore. In Zoe Kazan’s “After the Blast” — the slender play of weighty subjects that opened Monday night at Lincoln Center Theater — an android called Arthur hijacks the spotlight from the moment he first toddles across the stage.

Since Arthur — and I mean the character as well as the squat, vacuum-cleaner-like contraption portraying him — must be mobilized by human programming, it takes a while for him to swing into ambulatory action. Anna, a depressed woman of the future who is longing to have a baby and who is given Arthur as a temporary companion, is wary of — shall we say — turning him on.

Her fears turn out to be well founded, but not because the actress portraying Anna, the captivating Cristin Milioti (of “Once” and “Lazarus”), can’t hold her own against a hunk of metal. On the contrary, Arthur and Ms. Milioti have fabulous chemistry, and he brings out a sweet and luminous intensity in his human co-star.