Play delves into relationship between humans and tech
... And actor Andrew stars as a sentient washing machine
IT could be the most unusual role he has had, admits Dennistoun actor Andrew Keay ( and coming from a man who has played a giant horse and a non- binary bison, that’s saying something).
“It’s quite a challenge,” he grins. “But that’s what I love about acting, the sheer variety of characters you get the chance to bring to life.”
Andrew plays Max, or SuperMax3000 to give him his full title, in the funny and unnerving play SPIN!, which also includes ( probably) the world’s first musical duet between a woman and a washing machine.
It’s part of Vanishing Point’s Unplugged season, theatre created specially to tour to small- scale venues and after its premiere at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow this week, it will travel across the country.
Max is a brand new, ‘ smart’ washing machine. The woman who owns it hears a voice coming from it and when she talks to it, it talks back and it’s a surprisingly good conversation.
However, it soon becomes clear that her high- tech, environmentally friendly best friend knows a little bit too much about her and it’s not long before she is swirling around in a divisive world, with the machine threatening to do more than air her dirty laundry.
“I’m not really a big smart tech person,” says Andrew. “I’m a bit scared of it, to be honest. Even thinking about your phone, and how it’s probably listening to everything you’re saying, is a bit frightening.
“And there are such things as smart washing machines in development, I’ve learned they can do all kinds of functions, like analysing your clothes and where you’ve been when you’ve been wearing them and who you have been with.”
He breaks off with a laugh: “I don’t think I want that from my washing machine. It’d probably ask me why on earth I’ve been wearing the same jumper for 20 years.”
Andrew trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and has since worked on a wealth of stage and screen productions, including the multiaward- winning War Horse with the Royal National Theatre, open- air Shakespeare, and Netflix series Ridley Jones.
SPIN!, produced in collaboration with Mull Theatre, is about our relationship with artificial intelligence ( AI) and smart technology, and asks whether it will ever be an adequate replacement for other people.
Writer Catriona MacLeod explains: “The convergence of human connection and technology once felt dystopian, but the enforced isolation of the pandemic created a landscape in which technology was our main – and perhaps only – gateway to the outside world.
“Though the show speaks to isolation through humour, there is a central anxiety at the heart of it – the loss of who we were before the advent of the pandemic, and a fundamental shift in the way we collectively search for and maintain relationships that is dependent on our devices. I think empathy is easily discarded when connections are virtual. Relationships have been made more fragile somehow – does it matter if you never speak to someone again if they only ever existed as a profile photo and a chat bubble on your phone?”
While SPIN! delves into darker themes, Andrew says he has had “a lot of fun” with the subject matter.
“It’s about what makes us human, really, and that’s just joyful to explore,” he says.
Spin! is at the Tron Theatre until today and at various venues around Scotland until April 14 – including Clarkston Hall on April 3.