The show has been described by some as Pygmalion meets Blade runner. I think that’s a very apt description. As Henry Higgins found a flower girl to pass off as a Lady, Adam finds a machine to pass off as a comic actress. However its not –exactly- the same story, it’s one of its numerous themes. you may even find some of the lines a subtle nod to that particular theme. There are other themes  in the play, the central theme is that of the Character of Jacie ,who goes from child like machine innocence to fully developed and very human adult, shaped by those she meets along the way. At its clockwork heart is a love letter to comedy. Ayckbourn said he often wondered why people in lonely hearts columns were looking for people with a GSOH ((good sense of humor)) and that he wrote the play as a “Potential” answer to that question. The play though written in 1998 also makes potent social commentary about timeless issues, Machinery replacing the workforce, the general dumbing down of popular entertainment and of course the eternal struggle between the artist and the accountant.

STUART MITCHELL-SMITH.

DIRECTOR "Comic Potential"