From clumsy to clobbering: Berkeley theater’s Frankenstein production mirrors AI development fears

Theatre Lunatico’s new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” draws striking parallels between the 200-year-old tale and today’s artificial intelligence era, featuring a creation that learns to speak with alarming speed and eventually challenges its creator’s humanity. The Berkeley production, running through November 2 at La Val’s Subterranean, demonstrates how Shelley’s exploration of artificial consciousness and unchecked technological ambition remains unnervingly relevant as AI systems like ChatGPT exhibit increasingly human-like behavior.

Why this matters: The production arrives as society grapples with AI systems that replicate human conversation patterns while inheriting our biases, raising fundamental questions about what distinguishes human consciousness from artificial intelligence.

The big picture: Director Lauri Smith’s analog theater approach uses simple tools—whistling, buzzing, and synchronized breathing—to create an atmosphere of technological dread that rivals any high-tech production.

• The ensemble creates sound effects that transform into alarms as Victor Frankenstein (Tyler Aguallo) brings his creature (Sam Heft-Luthy) to life through dials and switches.
• The low-tech basement setting of a pizza parlor becomes a compelling counterpoint to Silicon Valley’s high-tech promises.

Key parallels to AI: The play’s monster mirrors modern AI development patterns, starting with clumsy communication before rapidly gathering data and mimicking human speech.

• When Victor denies the creature’s full humanity, it responds devastatingly: “If there is anything missing in me, it was already missing in you.”
• Both AI and Frankenstein’s monster represent fantasies of immortality—one as a tireless digital companion, the other as reanimated corpse pieces.

What critics are saying: San Francisco Chronicle theater critic Lily Janiak notes the production’s ability to inspire “heebie-jeebies with tools that Shelley—or humankind’s first storytellers, gathered round a campfire—would recognize.”

• She highlights Sarah Jiang’s performance as Elizabeth, Victor’s fiancée, who “seems to have morphed her very breath and pulse for the role.”
• The critic observes how the play suggests “unchecked technological progress isn’t the only might or virtue.”

Performance details: The one hour, 50-minute production runs through November 2 at La Val’s Subterranean in Berkeley, with tickets ranging from $15-$50.

• While some ensemble members struggle with line delivery and character distinction, standout performances anchor the production’s emotional core.
• The foreshadowing builds tension as characters sense impending doom, particularly during Elizabeth’s wedding day premonition about “someone walking over my grave.”

The uncomfortable question: As Janiak asks, if society continues making the same mistakes as Victor Frankenstein, “just how bad is it that we’re all essentially carrying Frankenstein’s monster in our pockets?”