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Everything about Jay Stulls The Singularity Play, now in a world premiere at Jackalope Theatre (directed by Georgette Verdin) should feel timely and tense. Its about the effects of AI on art, relationships, and life, after allwhat could be more ripped-from-the-headlines than that?

But something about Stulls story left me cold, and I think it may be because the play itself, despite the skillful performances of Verdins ensemble, feels self-conscious and straining for profundity on the question of what makes us human. The real dramatic meat of the story lies in something far more commonplace than the sci-fi/satire underpinnings of the script acknowledge: the impossibility of recovering from the death of a child.

The Singularity Play Through 6/22: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 6/10 and 6/17 7:30 PM; audio description and live captions Sun 6/9; Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 N. Sheridan, 773-340-2543, jackalopetheatre.org, $35 (Edgewater residents $25, students $15)

The first scene takes place in a conference room at Google, where a group of actors, led by director Lauren (Christina Gorman) try to rehearse a play written by an AI program, Denise (voiced by Anelga Hajjar). Greg (Patrick Newson Jr.)lets call him Denises minderattributes pretty much anything the cast hates to the algorithm. (And when Denise spits out some Gertrude Steinlike lines that the cast likes, Greg shuts them down for not being what the company is looking for in the experiment.)

When Jason (Kroydell Galima) suffers a tragedy offstage, Denise uses that event as an element in the script theyre building. Tensions around both the new technology and artistic choices grow and explode.

By the second scene, set sometime in the future, were deep into Inception territory, with a new group of actors interacting with the humanoid robot Dennis (Hajjar, feeling like a slightly more ominous version of Janet from The Good Place), and a director, Ocean (Collin Quinn Rice), showing us that AI hasnt killed off all artistic pretension. (The many sly in-jokes about the rehearsal process throughout the play ring truthful.)

Offstage, there are, were told, a handful of humans in Idaho who have rejected the wet suit of implanted technology thats required in order to have any kind of life. Lucy Carapetyans Royal has been spending more and more time in World, a sort of simulation that seems more real than real life to them.

But what should be terrifying feels more opaque (or ludicrous) here, because Stulls script seems more interested in checking off boxes on what the brave new world of AI-dominated life looks like than investing in the characters. AI as a requirement for employment? Check. AI as a substitute for flesh-and-blood IRL relationships? Check. AI negating the birth of actual children? Check.

The mechanism for how this last reality came to be remains frustratingly vague, undercutting the human drama of the final scene. I dont think thats the fault of the actors or of Verdins direction (shes shown in past plays, like Teatro Vistas Enough to Let the Light In, that she knows how to combine deeply felt tragedy with otherworldly elements.) I think its because in creating the atmosphere of the Uncanny Valley of the play, Stulls story loses its way. There are many witty lines and solid performances in The Singularity Play, but they dont add up to a satisfying and convincing whole.

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The Singularity Play tackles AI - Chicago Reader