About the Play:

Comic Potential is a full-length romantic comedy by Alan Ayckbourn. When do artificial intelligence and humanity coincide? This sci-fi satire offers a world where actors are replaced with convincingly lifelike robots known as "actoids". An aspiring screenwriter gets more than he bargained for when he finds himself smitten with his almost-human leading lady. Comic Potential is a wickedly funny satire that reads like a cautionary tale of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Comic Potential is set in the foreseeable future in a television studio where the director – a has-been former film director – and two assistants are making a never-ending hospital soap opera. However, the difference here is that they are using "actoids" – robots emotionally programmed from the control room to act – and there are no scriptwriters. Into this situation comes the idealistic Adam, the young nephew of the millionaire station owner and an aspiring screenwriter. But when Adam starts chatting with the actoid Jaycee Triplethree (serial number JC333), playing the nurse on "Hospital Hearts," and finds, to his surprise, that not only can she carry on a conversation but, due to what she calls a fault in her programming, she has a creative imagination. When in anguish Jaycee finally cries that she can't say anything she hasn't been programmed to say, Adam points out that no one ever says anything original anyway. Adam wants to build a new television series around her but the studio will not hear of it. He also finds he is falling in love with the charming robot! Will Adam get the green light on his series? Will love prevail? Comic Potential is considered one of the funniest and most inventive plays by Britain's grand master of comedy.

Comic Potential premiered in 1998 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and transferred to the West End at the Lyric Theatre in 1999. The role of Jaycee is one of Alan Ayckbourn's greatest characters; her portrayer won all of London's major acting awards. Since then the play opened off-Broadway in 2001 at The Manhattan Theatre Club and has been mounted by colleges and community theatres.

Cast: 5 female, 5 male (to play various roles)

What people say:

"As with all Ayckbourn's best plays you are watching a comedy-farce and suddenly find that tragedy comes out of the woodwork and grins at you... Like all serious comedies, Comic Potential hurts you with the sheer exuberance of its laughter and liberates you with its seriousness... The master of Scarborough is still on top form." — The Sunday Times (London)

"He is a profoundly moral writer and ...has reached a new synthesis between the comic and the serious-the painfully funny ... We are a fortunate age to have had our own Moliere." — Sir Peter Hall

About the Playwright:

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, born in London in 1939, is one of the most widely performed living English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. His works, mostly comedies, deal with middle-class manners and conflicts. He is a Tony, Olivier, and Moliere Award winning writer who has written 77 full length plays, more than half of which have gone on to London's West End. His contribution to theatre has been recognized with both a Special Tony Award and the Olivier's Special Award.