Marjorie Prime
What would it be like to conjure up a long-deceased family member and talk to them again in the twilight of your years? With Marjorie Prime, now at the Hayes, playwright Jordan Harrison has just done it, twice actually. Premiering originally in 2015 at The Mark Taper Forum, then in its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons, the play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama.
This prescient play seemed more sci-fi in nature ten years ago. Artificial intelligence and chatbots were surreal and not in the zeitgeist in those days. Now they hover over us and are a prevalent undercurrent that makes many citizens uneasy, even as the younger generation accepts it as the next new thing. Once it gets loose it will be hard to contain the AI genie in the bottle.
This mesmerizing play is both a clarion call and warning writ large. Marjorie (June Squibb) an 85-year-old woman with dementia, is losing her memory, while fighting off her Alzheimer’s symptoms as best she can. She lives with her daughter Tess (Cynthia Nixon) and son-in-law Jon (Danny Burstein). The timeframe is approximately 40 years or so in the future (2062). But stage setting (scenic design by Lee Jellinek) looks like the world we live in now. No high-tech, super advanced gadgets to be seen. The diorama-like set is visually comforting and seductive in its simplicity.
Marjorie has a new companion — a holographic projection of her late husband Walter (Christopher Lowell). He is a computer-generated AI “Prime” version of Walter at his prime age, in his early 30s. In various short scenes these two talk and discuss their shared history. Walter’s information is stored systematically as he assimilates the fractured memory of his wife; Marjorie “feeds” Walter with information that he readily listens to, frequently saying “I’ll remember that”, as he files it into his data base.
This is all done in a simple, matter-of-fact way, as if it were normal, yet Tess has issues with this new computer-generated father of hers. Complex memories of her upbringing slowly rise to the surface, and Jon and Tess have a sad history with their deceased child and never bring it up. But it hovers over the couple and at a later point in the play it is addressed. Midway through the play a death occurs, then another, and the play gains further gravitas with complex discoveries (no spoilers).
The construction of the play provokes the viewer’s own personal reactions to be discovered. Director Anne Kauffman has a deft touch with this work, just as she did when she directed it 10 years ago. All the leads are perfectly in sync with the work. Special kudos to Miss Squibb, who at the tender age of 96 might be the oldest performer ever on Broadway. Moody lighting by Ben Stanton shifts the various scenes with aplomb, helped along by Daniel Kruger’s unobtrusive, shimmering, slightly menacing sound design. Costume designer Márion Talán De La Rosa oddly doesn’t tweak the clothes to be futuristic in this production, and keeps the outfits in our current style.
This heart-rending play about aging, love, loss and memory with a dollop of AI, has much to say about where we were and what the future might bring. Oops…it’s already here. An uneasy alliance with our computer-generated world is on a rapid trajectory forward. The genie is indeed out of the bottle.
Marjorie Prime
At The Hayes Theater
240 West 44th St
Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Through Feburary 15, 2026
