In the near future, a time of artificial intelligence: 86-year-old Marjorie has a handsome new companion who looks like her deceased husband and is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. 250 W. 57th Street And it is this tension between life and death – with memory functioning as connective tissue – that animates Jordan Harrison’s subtly shattering play, Marjorie Prime." She creates a palpable belief that this contrasting personality is most definitely Marjorie's daughter. - The New York Times, Read More, "An elegant study of memory as both escape and prison. EMAIL ME. Footage was screened for buyers at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. In case they don’t, see Marjorie Prime now, because it will be, even then, a play worth remembering. - Time Out New York, Read More, "Jordan Harrison’s play…has all the hallmarks of the best science fiction; it’s clever in conceit, alive with humor, surprising in its turns, and terribly haunting by the time the lights go out." FACEBOOK The cost and license availability quoted are estimates only and may differ when you apply for a license. A woman in her mid-80s and a handsome man who appears to be in his 40s sit across a table and talk for a good while. It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. The play had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons and its Chicago premiere at Writers Theatre after premiering at the Mark Taper Forum/CTG in Los Angeles. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Costume designer: Ilona Somogyi The new film "Marjorie Prime" is set in the near future in a world where people can purchase holographic versions of their dead loved ones. It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. | California Privacy Rights Venue: Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles In Anne Kauffman’s perfectly chilled yet cozy staging, the human parts of Harrison’s smart, lovely play are built to last." Myron Meisel | Do Not Sell My Personal Information https://www.vulture.com/2017/08/marjorie-prime-movie-review.html https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/marjorie-prime-review Certain phrases bob up and down throughout the dialogue, signifying barely submerged secrets. Sitemap | Still, when not buffed to the gills and poured into a Mad Men power suit, Hamm looks scaled down to affably human; even the granite jaw aims to please. Marjorie Prime is an affecting and audacious chamber piece: a futurist meditation on memory, mortality and the self. Its aim is to provide solace by projecting the departed's physical presence, based on detailed input from the bereaved. Originally commissioned by Playwrights Horizons in New York, and further workshopped locally last year at South Coast Repertory's Pacific Playwrights Festival, Marjorie Prime marshals a fine array of out-of-town talent. Smith's more than 60-year stage career has been further enhanced with memorable filmed appearances from East of Eden to Five Easy Pieces to True Blood, and the opportunity to encounter her formidable yet supple gifts has always been a substantial treat. The production was directed by Les Waters. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace. They also wrestle with how and whether to be training Walter Prime with additional biographical data that Marjorie cannot provide. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. But his reliance on generic dramaturgy often undermines his skills with dialogue and delicacy of mood. But it also comes into play with particular power and meaning after someone who has been loved dies. The narrative opens with elderly, frequently addled Marjorie (Lois Smith) tutoring "Walter Prime" (Jeff Ward), the new technological incarnation of her late husband, in his much younger years. © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Important: Marjorie Prime is directed by Michael Almereyda, and stars Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis, and Lois Smith. However, Smith's star power notwithstanding, Center Theatre Group yet again ostentatiously avoids hiring from the plentiful pool of hugely capable Los Angeles players. Scripts and rental materials are not included in this estimate. Marjorie’s daughter Tess (Geena Davis) is mostly disturbed by the presence of a father facsimile while her husband, Jon (Tim Robbins), has taken it upon himself to … 6th Floor This estimator is only for non-equity/amateur productions. But though her Marjorie may drive the action of the piece, Emery’s Tess emerges as its true protagonist and central dramatic figure. Hedy Weiss Terms of Use | Sound designer: Adam Phalen - Los Angeles Times, Read More, "Memory is an essential element of life – crucial to thought, feeling, progress, identity. Harrison, who wrote the far stronger Futura, produced in 2010 at Boston Court, provides plenty of grace notes for his actors to play, along with the occasional eloquently awkward silence. Cast: Lois Smith, Lisa Emery, Frank Wood, Jeff Ward Instead, the deceased appear only in the form of a computer program. Marjorie Prime's highly intellectual tone and slow pacing will turn off some viewers, likely including most kids. For all the dramatist’s admirable determination not to hammer home his points, he resorts far too often to sprints of explicit exposition, punctuated as they may be by inspired ellipses. By Bill Hirschman “Death ends a life, but not a relationship,” Robert Anderson wrote to begin and end his play, I Never Sang For My Father.Among a half-dozen interlocking themes, Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime at Main Street Players posits 21 st Century technology giving people a chance to say what was left unsaid, to finish unfinished business. Even though it's set a few decades in the future and features plot elements such as holograms and artificial intelligence, Robert Leff doesn't consider the play "Marjorie Prime… And it is this tension between life and death – with memory functioning as connective tissue – that animates Jordan Harrison’s subtly shattering play, “Marjorie Prime.”" Read Full Review. Please, playwrights (and screenwriters), can there not at long last be a moratorium on the ubiquitous gambit of a dead child either in the back story or, even worse, as a cathartic event? You'll have to sign in before you share your experience. The company's association with the novel musical The Behavior of Broadus, currently running at the micro-house Sacred Fools, represents a positive step in that direction. Marjorie Prime was adapted from Jordan Harrison’s stage play by screenwriter and director Michael Almereyda (Experimenter, 2015, Hamlet, 2000, and the David Lynch-produced Nadja, 1995). Take a look below at how you can enhance your show! Playwright: Jordan Harrison That is until the appearance of Walter, a mysterious and charming young visitor programmed to help Marjorie uncover the intricacies of her own past. Director: Les Waters All rights reserved. - The New Yorker, Read More, "Marjorie Prime…is primarily concerned with something eternal:  the way our humanity is shaped and warped by the mysterious ebbs and flows of memory." Marjorie Prime November 20, 2015 – January 24, 2016 Mainstage Theater Written by Jordan Harrison Directed by Anne Kauffman In complete command of the tensile brittleness required of her otherwise conventional character, Emery feels as emotionally present in every moment as does Smith. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie's Prime relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. TWITTER Scripts and rental materials are not included in this estimate. The same goes for … It largely takes place in a single location, and it leaves alone the distinctively stagey cadences of the dialogue. Lighting designer: Lap Chi Chu Set designer: Mimi Lien Synopsis. Death takes a holiday from onstage depiction in Marjorie Prime, the new play by Jordan Harrison, a writer on Orange is The New Black. The first scene of Michael Almereyda ’s graceful, enthralling chamber drama “Marjorie Prime” takes place in the well-appointed living room of a Long Island beach house. Fees and availability are subject to change during the application process. It stars Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis, and Lois Smith. Death takes a holiday from onstage depiction in Marjorie Prime, the new play by Jordan Harrison, a writer on Orange is The New Black. Summary. Marjorie Prime works better as a premise, and likely as a play, than as a movie—but what a premise. "Jordan Harrison’s elegant, thoughtful and quietly unsettling drama… keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it...At some point, you realize that it’s been landing skillfully targeted punch after punch, right where it hurts." Jordan Harrison was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Marjorie Prime. Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime is a quick but utterly engaging play that uses many noticeable and familiar science fiction motifs to stage an elongated conversation about grief, resentment, and relationships. In Marjorie Prime Jon Hamm plays a hologram, which may seem like odd casting of an actor with such fleshly presence. Director Michael Almereyda's screenplay mostly leaves intact the material of Jordan Harrison's 2014 play, a Pulitzer finalist. Sections SEARCH The cost and license availability quoted are estimates only and may differ when you apply for a license. By Ella Taylor in the July-August 2017 Issue. New York, NY 10107-0102. Not much of a plot summary can be revealed about Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, Marjorie Prime, without spoiling the story’s twists and turns. In … But in Marjorie Prime, playwright Jordan Harrison explores the haunting question of what might happen if memory persists with loss removed from the equation. 12:02 PM PDT 9/23/2014 What … But for others, especially those confronting these issues in their own lives, it could play … In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace. Nevertheless, the conceit's allusive impact has been considerably blunted by too many similar sci-fi scenarios, not least in Spike Jonze's far superior Her. | EU Privacy Preferences, The legendary Lois Smith provides ample motivation to see this delicately rendered if rather underdeveloped drama. "Primes" are digitally projected A.I. Such surprises as Marjorie Prime does offer seem comparatively predictable, even stock. Marjorie Prime is an American science-fiction film written and directed by Michael Almereyda, based on Jordan Harrison's play of the same name. This play, written by Jordan Harrison and directed by Anne Kauffman, centers on an 85-year-old woman who gets help from a re-creation of her dead husband. AdChoices Presented by Center Theatre Group. Meanwhile, her taut daughter Tess (Lisa Emery) and her own empathetic husband Jon (Frank Wood) fret about how to deal with Marjorie’s degeneration, her reveries and receding recall. There is a certain sci-fi strangeness that … As such, it makes maximum use out of minimal locations, but not to the detriment of the film; Almereyda is more-than adept at stage-to-screen adaptations. Irrespective of the modest virtues and equally modest faults of the text itself, prolific director Les Waters, artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, has assembled an exemplary cast, wrenching optimal sensitivity from the material with great assurance of tone. Marjorie Prime is a wonderful example of a stage-to-screen adaptation. Equity/professional customers should contact the Licensing department directly at [email protected] to inquire about a title's availability. by It's the age of artificial intelligence, but 86-year-old Marjorie is worried that her memory may be fading. This tool is unavailable at the moment. Marjorie Prime premiered at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theater Group in Los Angeles in September 2014. - Chicago Sun-Times, Read More, 20 Plays & Musicals for Spooky SeasonAnnette StorckmanSeptember 27, 2019, Here Comes the Singularityby Sarah LunnieJuly, 11, 2016, Someway Elseby Adam GreenfieldJuly 11, 2016, Playwright's Perspective: MARJORIE PRIMEby Jordan HarrisonJuly 11, 2016, Marjorie Prime Playwright's Horizons Trailer. Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. This is only an estimate. Marjorie Prime is a wrenching chamber drama, composed of episodes that are strung together with a subtly intricate thread of evolving verbal recollection, which symbolizes the fantastic qualities of memory at large. Please try again later. Start planning your production with a cost estimate you can save and share with your team. Concord Theatricals The same goes for grief and loss, though the drama is suffused with a piquant sense of all of them. The sounds of waves outside are heard throughout. It’s a futuristic trip to a Twilight Zone where no home is complete without lifetime companions who keep the old days alive and compensate for the bothersome realities of death. But it also comes into play with particular power and meaning after someone who has been loved dies. Exploring contentious issues of social and personal morality, Marjorie Prime is a poignant play of ideas, and a fundamentally realistic work deftly traversing through the timeless themes of … My name's Jayson Markey and I do … “Marjorie Prime” is based on the acclaimed play of the same name, which also starred Smith in the lead role. constructs that allow users to converse with deceased friends, family members, and lovers. This essentially Twilight Zone-like high concept thankfully eschews the hectoring metaphoric significance of Rod Serling, employing indirect suggestion to propel its characters through parlous emotional territory with a muted sense of inquiry and struggle. Inevitably, of course, they are simultaneously both encountering and avoiding their own attitudes toward memory, mortality and the fraught prospect of future decline. 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