Beyond the Fence (Arts Theatre)
Can computers make art? It's a brilliant philosophical conundrum – as much about the nature of art as artificial intelligence. Machines have been drawing since the 1960s, composing music since the 1970s and, in the past few years, writing novels to boot. It's the tech equivalent of infinite monkeys and their infinite typewriters. But is it art – or just the simulation of it?
Beyond the Fence is, supposedly, the world's first computer-generated musical. It's actually the product of several computer processes, as overseen by two human composers, Benjamin Till and Nathan Taylor. Better, perhaps, to say computer-assisted. The collaborative team includes the ideas-generator What-If Machine, plot-constructor Propperwryter, the Cloud Lyricist, Flowcomposer and – brilliant, brilliant, brilliant – Android Lloyd Webber. Tiller and Taylor are, essentially, curating and correcting the computers' output.
Set at Greenham Common, at the women-only peace camp protesting against nuclear weapons, Beyond the Fence charts the airbase invasions and police evictions. With Trident in the papers again, it ought to be topical. Instead, it's stereotypical, honing in on single mother Mary (CJ Johnson), her mute daughter George and friendly American airman Jim (Ako Mitchell).
The result is pretty much as you'd expect: perfectly watchable – no more, no less. The whole thing slips down like syrup. Easy on the ear, the eye and the emotions. Easy on ideas, too.
As it goes on, however, the mechanics of plot overwhelm the specifics of the setting, and the whole thing drifts, inexorably, into cliché and sentiment. There's a death just at the right moment, a triumph right at the end and, finally of course, a happy-ever-after.
Isn't it obvious? If you take the average of a load of hit musicals, you'll end up with something pretty average. Follow a formula and – who would have thunk it – you get something formulaic. Every song does exactly what you expect it too and the lyrics get blander and blander until they become ridiculous. "The wind is a ribbon of rainbows." Bleurgh. It's all so soupy, it should have been canned.
Whatever else it achieves, the process has no grasp of feminism – and that's ultimately what sinks it. It throws up a gaggle of female archetypes (Mumsy, Lusty, Podgy and Punk), then prods its protagonist into a clunky romance that, effectively, sees her saved by a man. Yikes – but then, that's what happens when you're jumping off from the popular successes of a patriarchal culture. You end up replicating the past, not challenging it.
Can computers do that? One day, maybe, but not yet. Not yet.
Beyond the Fence runs at the Arts Theare until 5 March.
