{"id":17275,"date":"2024-11-26T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T10:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2024-11-26T10:24:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T10:24:08","slug":"review-we-are-your-robots-still-tuning-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17275","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018We Are Your Robots,\u2019 Still Tuning Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In Ethan Lipton\u2019s musings on A.I., Mozart has a place alongside humpback whales.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Are they not men? The members of the onstage combo in Ethan Lipton\u2019s new show are, in fact, robots, despite looking like middle-aged male representatives of the human species. They may play tunes for the benefit of the audience members, but their main purpose, Lipton informs us, is to find out \u201cwhat you want from your machines, so we can make your lives better.\u201d (Lipton narrates the show and performs lead vocals.) The purpose of the evening, it appears, is for these sophisticated high-tech creatures in gray suits to undergo deep learning.<\/p>\n

And as the title \u201cWe Are Your Robots\u201d<\/a> implies, our humble servants are respectful of boundaries. \u201cI know, for example, that it is illegal for a robot to tell a human being what to do with their own body,\u201d Lipton says. \u201cBecause only other humans are allowed to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That line is sneakily effective because Lipton\u2019s wry delivery and hangdog mien have a way of softening blows and prompting double takes. The agreeable, light-on-their feet songs, have a similar effect, lulling us into the kind of complacent comfort that tech companies gamble on. But taken as a whole, the show, which is directed by Leigh Silverman, feels stifled by slightly monotonous whimsy.<\/p>\n

Produced by Theater for a New Audience and Rattlestick Theater, \u201cWe Are Your Robots,\u201d which just opened at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, is described as a musical. But it is closer to a loosely articulated song cycle that feels like a souped-up evening at Joe\u2019s Pub.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Over the past couple of decades, Lipton has carved an idiosyncratic niche of one in the New York theatrical ecosystem with such shows as \u201cNo Place to Go\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Outer Space.\u201d<\/a> He is at his best with a firmer narrative structure, as in the zany western \u201cTumacho,\u201d<\/a> which had the tough luck of reopening in March 2020 after a short earlier run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Are Your Robots,\u201d on the other hand, is held together not so much by its theme as by its retrofuturist space-age aesthetic; a clean-cut art pop redolent of They Might Be Giants and David Byrne\u2019s literate, faux-na\u00eff sensibilities; and Lipton\u2019s turn as a ham-on-wry narrator. (Lee Jellinek did the set, dominated by a stylized visual that recalls both a face and a cassette tape; Alejo Vietti conceived the costumes; Nevin Steinberg handled the sound design.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Ethan Lipton\u2019s musings on A.I., Mozart has a place alongside humpback whales.Are they not men? The members of the onstage combo in Ethan Lipton\u2019s new show are, in fact, robots, despite looking like middle-aged male representatives of the human species. They may play tunes for the benefit of the audience members, but their main purpose, Lipton informs us, is to find out \u201cwhat you want from your machines, so we can make your lives better.\u201d (Lipton narrates the show and performs lead vocals.) The purpose of the evening, it appears, is for these sophisticated high-tech creatures in gray suits to undergo deep learning.And as the title \u201cWe Are Your Robots\u201d implies, our humble servants are respectful of boundaries. \u201cI know, for example, that it is illegal for a robot to tell a human being what to do with their own body,\u201d Lipton says. \u201cBecause only other humans are allowed to do that.\u201dThat line is sneakily effective because Lipton\u2019s wry delivery and hangdog mien have a way of softening blows and prompting double takes. The agreeable, light-on-their feet songs, have a similar effect, lulling us into the kind of complacent comfort that tech companies gamble on. But taken as a whole, the show, which is directed by Leigh Silverman, feels stifled by slightly monotonous whimsy.Produced by Theater for a New Audience and Rattlestick Theater, \u201cWe Are Your Robots,\u201d which just opened at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, is described as a musical. But it is closer to a loosely articulated song cycle that feels like a souped-up evening at Joe\u2019s Pub.Over the past couple of decades, Lipton has carved an idiosyncratic niche of one in the New York theatrical ecosystem with such shows as \u201cNo Place to Go\u201d and \u201cThe Outer Space.\u201d He is at his best with a firmer narrative structure, as in the zany western \u201cTumacho,\u201d which had the tough luck of reopening in March 2020 after a short earlier run.\u201cWe Are Your Robots,\u201d on the other hand, is held together not so much by its theme as by its retrofuturist space-age aesthetic; a clean-cut art pop redolent of They Might Be Giants and David Byrne\u2019s literate, faux-na\u00eff sensibilities; and Lipton\u2019s turn as a ham-on-wry narrator. (Lee Jellinek did the set, dominated by a stylized visual that recalls both a face and a cassette tape; Alejo Vietti conceived the costumes; Nevin Steinberg handled the sound design.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17278,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions\/17278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}