The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence
Opening Night: December 9, 2013
Closing: December 29, 2013
Theater: Playwrights Horizons
Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bell’s first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. These four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the people—and machines—upon which we all depend.
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December 9, 2013
The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence probably seemed like a real dazzler when it was in the mind of its author, the playwright Madeleine George. But like many newfangled inventions that seem spectacular in blueprint form — good luck with those creepy-looking drones, Amazon! — the play now chugging across the stage at Playwrights Horizons too often sputters and stalls, falling victim to its own grand ambitions.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 9, 2013
Everybody needs somebody (or something) to lean on. That’s the theme of Madeleine George’s ambitious but buggy techie drama, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence at Playwrights Horizons.
READ THE REVIEWDecember 10, 2013
The lobby of Playwrights Horizons currently sports a contraption that challenges visitors to compete against a computer in friendly rounds of Jeopardy!. I spent about 15 minutes there before an evening’s performance of Madeleine George’s The (Curious Case Of The) Watson Intelligence, watching an obviously very knowledgeable man chime in immediately with correct answers, only to continually be told that the computer also came in with the correct response, but in the most miniscule dot of time before him.
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December 9, 2013
Watson (The Full Monty’s John Ellison Conlee), the trusty companion of Sherlock Holmes, investigates mysterious marks on the arm of a troubled woman (Amanda Quaid) married to a genius inventor (David Constabile). Meanwhile, Watson (Ellison Conlee again), a humanoid computer based on IBM’s Jeopardy-winning technology, engages in Siri-style chatter with the woman (Quaid) who helped build him, while Watson (Ellison Conlee), a computer repairman, follows the same woman at the request of her jealous estranged husband (Constabile). And then Watson (you guessed it: Ellison Conlee), the assistant to telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, gives a radio interview about his invention. Confused? You still will be after seeing The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, a thoughtful and ambitious new play by Madeleine George in which these four different plot lines all interweave and overlap in puzzling ways.
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December 9, 2013
Selflessness is not a quality most playwrights imbue in their protagonists. Stage creations should be driven, pushy, bullish—the better to drum up conflict and laughs. And yet Madeleine George’s sweet and twisty The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence keeps the seriocomic juices flowing with a title character (or rather, characters) who lives to serve. Watson (Conlee) recurs in various epochs—Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, Sherlock Holmes’s sidekick, a computer program and a modern-day IT dude. In each incarnation, the affable fellow simply wants to help.
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