A Dead Body in Taos

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Is keeping an avatar version of your loved ones long after they have passed a comfort, or is it simply delaying the inevitable – is it more than anything, a barrier to the grieving process? Designer Ti Green fills the stage with an ingenious assemblage of screens that sit surprisingly naturally amid the crumbling splendour of Wilton's Music Hall.

There are short scenes where Sam spends time with AI Kath that begin to address this, but it is overlooked in favour of more flashbacks, or time with a lawyer disputing a will.The theme of AI and disembodied consciousness is not new but Kath’s tenacity and the gradual discovery of the motivations behind her decision and her psychological progression as a living person are what make the play so fascinating. A young woman is screaming, howling, and contorting her body with rage as an unfazed group of hippies looks on. He has arrived back to childhood home after many year’s estrangement to prepare his recently deceased father’s body for its journey to afterlife. But soon she discovers that Kath isn’t so dead after all: she’s put her entire life savings into preserving herself as a prototype android, created by shadowy biotech facility FutureLife. This would be absolutely excellent with a little more focus and tightening of the story, but for now, it is merely good.

Upon meeting with her lawyer, Sam discovers that her mother had become associated with one of America’s many enterprises that promise a life after death.We briefly meet Leo ( David Burnett) during the funeral and are shown his meeting with her and the importance he would play in the remaining decades of her life.

David Farr’s new play is a brave experimental piece of sci-fi in theatre, one not usually attempted.Sam, played by Gemma Lawrence, has flown in from London to identify the body of her mother, Kath, from whom she has been estranged for three years. Travelling to the small town of Taos to identify the body, she discovers Kath has become embroiled in a shadowy enterprise, offering Sam an unimaginable chance to rebuild their broken relationship.