Theatre Review: Teaching a Robot to Love

Teaching a Robot to Love, by Laser Sidney Malena-Webber; directed by Ashley Ward. Produced as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival). First produced 2022. (Seen June 11, 2022.)

{Full disclosure: I was a Kickstarter backer for the album version, and a sponsor on the Seed & Spark fundraiser to produce this specific production.}

I’ve always felt a little different. (As I’m going through the process of possibly being diagnosed as autistic, I realize this may be why.) Growing up, I went through the phase where I tried to fit in, and then in junior high went through the phase (as gloriously shown in Disney’s Turning Red) where I owned my oddness and nothing was going to change.

It wasn’t easy. I went through many years where I felt alone in my oddness. I’ve had people make fun of me, and have had moments where I felt I would do anything to be ‘normal’. Thankfully, I found my wife, and she has become the one person in the world I felt who not only understood my weirdness but embraced it and loved it about me.

While Teaching a Robot to Love is intended to be a metaphor for transition and being trans, I couldn’t help but see the overlap with a general need to fit in and the realization that the people who like you as you are the true supporters.

As described in the Seed & Spark project page, the story is a queer retelling of Frankenstein, taking place in the tech city of Nanotropolis. We are introduced to Faun (Jessica Reiner-Harris) and her sister Lavender (Bonnie Gordon). Both are there to work for tech billionaire Norton Norton (Rob Warner, who in no way, shape, or form is intended to be a parody of a certain tech billionaire and had a field day playing him). Faun is a bright-eyed odd scientist, wanting to do things like clone her hedgehog and give them human eyeballs. Lavender, on the other hand, is there to get a break with Norton by any means necessary and basically wants to be as far away from Faun as possible.

The two each get their own roommates, with Faun ending up with Lavender’s competition, Mary (Aliza Pearl) and Lavender ending with Billie (Xander Jeanneret) who is only there due to their father being friends with Norton. Norton sets a challenge, and Mary and Faun end up creating a sentient robot, MARSH (Kelby Jo McClellan). The robot, as I’m sure you can tell by the title, learns about emotions.

As mentioned, I helped support this back when it was still just an album and then again when they wanted to bring it to a stage. So, I’ve been a part of the show since almost inception. And it’s been a fascinating journey: from seeing Laser’s initial pitch, to seeing the album be put together, to watching a staged reading, to finally seeing the musical on stage. It was interesting to see where the show differed from what I had in my head, and where it agreed. You can see Laser’s efforts to have the gender conversation in a way that is new, and manages to make it about humanity overall.

While this was my first Hollywood Fringe show, I’m very familiar with Fringe Festivals overall, having covered the Kansas City Fringe for a number of years for KC Stage (and even once reviewed something like 42 shows in one week). So I know that Fringe means that the shows are still working out the kinks and the budget is intentionally small.

However, I absolutely ADORED the costumes they went with for the show (especially the shoes!). Futuristic while still being (mostly) casual, they were a delight to see. The choreography was simple, but worked in the space they had.

The acting overall was great. I’m not going to mention everyone, but Reiner-Harris steals the show as Faun, and McClellan brings a sweet innocence to MARSH. My only complaint is that the actors – especially at the beginning – seemed to be too aware of the audience, making their conversations with each other a little too forward rather than actually looking like a conversation. But as it faded as the show progressed, I am assuming it was mostly nerves that caused this. Additionally, it was sometimes hard to hear the singing over the keyboard.

The show has a few more performances left at the Fringe, and will also be available for streaming. You can find out more at their section of the Hollywood Fringe website.