News: Distant Memories Of The Near Future Announced for Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023
The second production joining Thistle And Rose Arts’ Fringe roll call is the ground-breaking, innovative and wryly hilarious Distant Memories Of The Near Future, written by David Head (Unwanted Objects, A Good Service On All Other Lines, Murder In Tinseltown) and directed by Laura Killeen (Godot Is A Woman).
Distant Memories of the Near Future is a play about love. And artificial intelligence.
In a world-first, this hour-long piece features an AI character interacting via an LED screen with a human performer, resulting in a unique science-fiction storytelling experience.
Six overlapping narratives tell a cynical yet heartfelt story of a world "solved" by algorithms. The show explores our relationship with technology, creativity and ourselves asking, are these conundrums of life ever really solvable?
With tearjerker and laugh-out-loud moments throughout, Distant Memories Of The Near Future brings a delightful humanity to the potentials and pitfalls of technology. Alongside the interweaving stories, the production features pre-recorded adverts for fictional services and products that we may expect from the next few decades. These range from firms looking to acquire human voices to repurpose, all the way to automated matchmaking services that identify unlucky individuals as "statistically unlovable".
The show is a clarion call to question our society and the way we view ourselves. It urges us to find new awe in our inescapable connectedness, and to reconsider the impact of technology on our lives.
Distant Memories Of The Near Future will play at Summerhall from the 2nd to 28th of August at 5:45pm in the Red Lecture Theatre. Technical support is provided by Synthesia.io. For more information about the production, visit the show page here: thistleandrosearts.co.uk/distant-memories-of-the-near-future.
