Marjorie Prime - Roxy Lane Theatre

Reviewed by Kate O'Sullivan

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Roxy Lane Theatre’s latest production, Marjorie Prime, takes on Jordan Harrison’s quietly powerful play about aging, memory and artificial intelligence. Short-listed for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the script remains a thoughtful exploration of how we remember the people we love, and what it might mean to preserve them through technology. In this staging, the work is presented with care, delivering a production that is visually appealing and emotionally engaging, even if its rhythm is somewhat uneven.

The production is presented in two acts, running approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 20-minute interval and a final 40 minutes. While workable in many contexts, this structure feels slightly at odds with the material. Marjorie Prime is an 80-90 minute one-act play, and the interval interrupts the intimacy and momentum that the script carefully builds.

Several technical choices also contribute to the stop-start pacing. Scene changes rely on extended blackouts, which, while likely necessary for costume adjustments, leave the audience sitting in silence for longer than ideal. The absence of transitional sound or music makes these pauses particularly noticeable.

The set design makes good use of the venue’s deep stage, creating a clean and clearly defined playing space. The home environment is attractively dressed, though the opening scenes could benefit from a few additional personal touches to reinforce that the space belongs to an 86-year-old woman. Small details like these would help ground the early moments of the story before the timeline begins to shift.

Costuming is generally effective but occasionally feels a little rushed. A few quick changes are noticeable, with underlayers visible or additional garments appearing primarily to signal the passage of time. These moments are minor, but they stand out in such an intimate piece.

Among the performances, Janet Dickinson’s portrayal of Marjorie is a highlight. She carefully distinguishes between the living Marjorie and the AI recreation, the titular Marjorie Prime, through subtle shifts in physicality and energy. Her Prime carries a more rhythmic, slightly heightened physical presence, with more unrestricted hand movements that contrast with the limitations in physicality of the elderly Marjorie.

Sam Yeo’s Walter Prime includes some effective physical detail, though the more robotic elements were not always consistent, which slightly softened the intended contrast between human and artificial character. Liza Black gives a strong emotional performance as Tess, capturing the character’s conflicted grief well, though the distinction between Tess and her AI counterpart is less clearly defined. Chris Harris' embodiment of John was nicely lived in, with a clear perspective, but it would have been nice for some of the emotional extremes to be built up to rather than coming out of nowhere.

The relationship between Tess and John, played by Chris Harris, would also benefit from a stronger sense of shared history. The characters often remain physically distant from one another, and the absence of small, incidental gestures makes their long partnership feel slightly less lived-in than the script suggests.

Despite these issues, the production captures the emotional core of Harrison’s play. Thoughtfully staged and sincerely performed, Roxy Lane Theatre’s Marjorie Prime remains a touching reflection on memory, love and the stories we choose to keep.

Reviewer Note: Tickets for this review were provided by the theatre company.