INTERVIEW: EST’s new play explores ‘Smart’ technology
Photo: Mary Elizabeth Hamilton is the writer of Smart, a new play at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Candi Adams PR with permission.
Mary Elizabeth Hamilton’s new play, Smart, is a deep dive into the world of technology and how it shapes human relationships. Specifically, the show, which comes to New York City courtesy of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, follows Elaine as she takes care of her ailing mother, Ruth. When Ruth refuses in-person care, Elaine decides to hire “Jenny,” a new bit of smart technology that provides companionship to humans who need a little TLC (and watching over), according to press notes.
Smart, which opened Thursday, April 6, features direction by Matt Dickson, and performances continue through April 23. The cast consists of Christine Farrell, Francesca Fernandez and Kea Trevett, plus the voice of Sherz Aletaha.
Hamilton is an accomplished playwright who went through the development program at EST known as the Youngbloods. She’s based in Brooklyn and is a graduate of The University of Iowa, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts. She also attained an artistic diploma from Juilliard. Her pervious playwrighting effort is called 16 Winters, and she has plans to make Smart into an AMC series.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Hamilton about all things technological. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How long have you been working on Smart?
EST/Sloan gave me a commission to develop Smart five years ago. We two workshops, and then the world shut down. Suddenly the idea of a character working remotely (which we worked so hard to explain in that first draft) was painfully familiar, and the characters’ experiences of loneliness, feeling cut off, trying to communicate with family from afar, made sense in a new light. I also developed the play as a TV pilot during that time, and parts of the story changed pretty drastically. But the relationships of these three women, and the questions about privacy, communication, boundaries and technology, have remained central in every iteration.
When you are presented with a new bit of technology, what are your initial thoughts? Fear? Excitement?
My daughter was given a Siri at the start of the pandemic. I was deep into research for the show at the time, watching and reading stories about how tech companies are using these devices to collect our data without our consent. So I was super creeped out by it and unplugged it every chance I got. But I eventually came around to the idea that it’s probably not much worse than my phone, and it does make listening to music easier. So I go back and forth between intense paranoia and resignation. I don’t know if there is much we can do about it, to be honest — even if I get rid of all of my devices, I still live in a world that’s inundated with them. I’m just holding out hope that whatever data they are gathering is too general to be specifically applicable to me in the near future. Mostly I am choosing not to think about it.
Do you believe smart devices are taking the place of real human relationships?
Haha I hope not! (And no, I don’t.) As much as the play explores themes of boundaries in technology, it’s also a play about communication and the ways in which we attempt to connect using whatever means we have at our disposal. I think that’s always been the case. A new device comes along, and at first it’s really startling and unfamiliar, but eventually it becomes part of the fabric of how we try and fail and continue to take stabs at making meaningful connections.
What do you believe the play has to say about the difficulties of helping an aging parent?
It is an experience a lot of people share, and yet when you’re in it, it is so personal and intense in all sorts of little unexpected ways, which can be hard to communicate, that it can feel really isolating. I think we are just starting as a country to recognize this, and I hope there will be more conversation around it in the coming years because at present it can be a pretty impossible experience without much built in support — institutional or emotional. I hope the play shows that in an honest way. I certainly don’t have any solutions, but I have to believe acknowledging and discussing these issues openly is a starting place.
How did the Youngblood program help you develop as a playwright?
I really had no idea as a clueless 28-year-old what a lasting part of my life that program would become. At the time, I was nannying, raising a toddler and not writing very much at all. The handful of short plays I managed to crank out for their monthly brunch performances made me feel like I was still a playwright, and that community was really central to keeping me sane during a pretty intense period of my life. Many of my closest friendships and collaborators remain people I met in Youngblood.
What’s it like to sit in the back of the theater and see your words come to life?
When you’re writing and rehearsing, you’re so in the weeds of each particular choice that it’s hard to see the thing as a whole. So the first performance where I can sit there without my laptop open to take notes is kind of an out-of-body experience — oh wow, this is the thing, I had no idea. This cast and creative team have been so smart and integral to the process, that finally being able to stop working and let them take over and embody these characters and world feels amazing, because I trust them so implicitly.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Smart, written by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, continues through April 23 at Ensemble Studio Theatre on West 52nd Street in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
