‘The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence’ premieres at ARHS
“The Curious Case of The Watson Intelligence,” written by acclaimed writer and ARHS grad Madeleine George, had its theatrical release on November 15, 2013, as an Off-Broadway show at Playwrights Horizons. Little did anyone know that only eleven years later it would be staged at ARHS, directed by junior Mia Allees-Berge.
The play was performed from Thursday, December 12 to Saturday, December 14 in three evening shows. Following three intricately weaving stories set in four distinct periods: 1871, 1891, 1931, and 2011, the audience watched as four different characters named Watson–an advanced android, an I.T worker, Sherlock Holmes’s sidekick, and Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant–experienced the twists and turns of new technology, as well as new love and old love, along with three different women all named Eliza and one middle-aged auditor named Merrick.
The play has received numerous awards since its initial release, one of its most noteworthy accolades being named a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. The description of it then, perhaps the best and most succinct description possible, described it as “a cleverly constructed play that uses several historical moments – from the 1800s to the 2010s – to meditate on the technological advancements that bring people together and tear them apart.”
Interim ARHS theater director Ashley Dunn (who is filling in during John Bechtold’s sabbatical at MASS MoCA) was provided with a curated selection of plays by Bechtold to choose from for the fall play; she picked “The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence” due to its “charming absurdist humor.”
Student director Allees-Berge described her experience directing this play as “an absolute blast. It’s [was] a lot of work, a lot to balance, and exhausting at times, but it [was] incredibly rewarding,” she said.
Allees-Berge added that the script “really is a brilliant script, and I feel so lucky that I got to work with it.”
She reported that her favorite moment while directing came during a day when morale was low among the cast. In hopes of combatting this, Allees-Berge urged them to remember that “if all of us walk into rehearsal with only theater on the brain, nothing else,” they could pull it off.
“I used the expression ‘leave your muddy boots at the door,’ which essentially means, ‘leave all your problems and attitudes behind,’” she said.
After that, the entire cast began just quipping “muddy boots!” whenever someone was getting off track or feeling down because of something non-theater related.
In addition to loving how the cast rallied together, Allees-Berge said that directing it will always hold “a special place” in her heart due to it being the first full-length script she’s ever directed.
To her, there is such a thrill in watching actors make sense of a script and make art together. “Seeing them build off each other’s ideas and leading themselves to realize something about their characters that they hadn’t already is cool,” she said.
She hopes the play got people thinking about technology, how it has advanced since the advent of the telephone, how these rapid advances have changed society, and what it means to be technology-reliant.
