The Chemistry Test. Stage Door Theatre.

Jack Cray and Hannah Adams’ Sci-Fi comedy The Chemistry Test sees Artificial Intelligence androids Steve and Evie tasked with falling in love. The thing is, AI has no sentience and cannot feel anything in the way humans understand it, so falling in love is impossible. “I’m able to recognise love-related behaviour,” says Evie, acknowledging bluntly her limitations. “Why charge us with a task we cannot achieve?” says Steve, angrily railing at the stupidity of the inferior humans surrounding him. But there are engineers with electromagnetic guns threatening to turn them “into Samsungs” if they fail, so the duo do the best they can, which is to mimic human behaviour. But can they convince the engineers the couple feels real love?

Steve (Jack Cray) suggests binge-watching rom-coms for inspiration and one supposes this is the genre the writers aim to deconstruct in the piece. Evie (Hannah Adams) proposes a meet-cute backstory, shared bonding over blood donation, and long-suppressed childhood traumas to overcome. Soon, the couple is arguing over Jäger bombs in clubs, watching Titanic in pyjamas, and complaining of supposed infidelities (“It never went as far as a plug-in” the guilty party promises).

She wants couscous salad, and he wants chips, so we have a hint of where this is headed. A painful interlude sees the pair invite friends to a passive-aggressive dinner party (sit at the back if you dislike audience interaction). Try as they might real love will not come, but what is love anyway? Two strangers bound together by a common purpose is the best answer the duo can find, which suggests AI is not as clever as it thinks.

The Chemistry Test began life as a fringe piece and often feels like a series of (mostly unfunny) sketches hung loosely over a storyline rather than a coherent whole. Steve boasts his computer drive is “three-and-a-half inches floppy and six inches solid-state”. That is the best joke in the show which indicates the ground here. The second half veers off into dystopian territory which is difficult to decipher and feels at odds with the early rom-com vibe.

Is there a message to The Chemistry Test? Perhaps it is that AI cannot love like people so people should eschew using AI (such as dating and hook-up apps) to find love. Fair enough, but the course of true love never did run smooth and apps are not to blame for that. Perhaps the next iteration of this piece will find more satisfying chemistry.

Writers and Directors:  Jack Cray and Hannah Adams