Last Updated on February 18, 2025
Thoughtful questions about humanity’s place in a world changed by AI, but lacking the drama of classic sci-fi.
How do you write fiction about AI today? We are between two eras: the early days of AI, when sci-fi writers speculated wildly about possible dystopian futures, and the later days when artificial general intelligence is unleashed and we understand its true implications.
It is in this half-space that East is South, a new play at the Hampstead Theatre by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, finds itself. But instead of leaning into the grey area of the present moment, Willimon chooses to set his play in a future where AI is fully developed, without giving us any details about what that world might actually look like. The result is a play that contains neither the drama of classic sci-fi nor the insight of a contemporary discussion.
East is South is set in an NSA interrogation room, where coders Lena (Kaya Scodelario) and Sasha (Luke Treadway) are being held to determine their role in the illegal and potentially world-altering release of AGI – their newly invented artificial general intelligence system-cum-god. They clash with threateningly comic NSA agent Olsen (Alec Newman) and chief interrogator Samira Darvish (Nathalie Armin). It is unclear how the singularity – the point at which AI can fully outsmart humans – has been reached, while the rest of the world seems to be entirely unaltered by technological advances.
In the absence of sci-fi speculation or contemporary ChatGPT discourse, Willimon’s script constantly interjects in the drama – carried by the semi-convincing romance between Lena and Sasha – to discuss the potential of AI from a philosophical perspective, posing questions about what it means for humanity’s self-perception, autonomy, and belief in God. These are interesting questions, but they rarely arise naturally, as they do in, for instance, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun, or Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner. In East is South, the issues are discussed at length in monologues about religion and philosophy, citing Deleuze, Descartes, and the Ancient Greeks. In one scene, the writer’s thoughts are literally dictated in the form of a university lecture. The character of Ari Abrams (Cliff Curtis) is tasked with the unenviable job of presenting much of this discussion and, to his credit, does so as best he can.
The most interesting element of the play is left, therefore, to be the journey of self-discovery of the characters due to their unusual backgrounds (a Maori Jew, a Russian conservatoire dropout, a Sufi NSA agent and a lapsed Mennonite provide enough material for multiple scripts). This, along with the direction of Ellen McDougall, is enough to make the play enjoyable.
But in choosing to eschew the active conjecture of science fiction while also leaping forward to a point in time when humanity is on the cusp of an AI takeover, East is South traps itself between drama and theory – and gives too little of both.
East is South Runs until 15th March
Hampstead Theatre,
Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage,
London, NW3 3EU
BOX OFFICE: 020 7722 9301
Looking for something different? Check our guide to West End Theatre for 2025
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