Stampin’ in the Graveyard – Voila! Theatre Festival / The Cockpit, London

Meet ROSE, an AI chat bot with wisdom for the end of the world, in Stampin’ in the Graveyard, on at the Cockpit Theatre as part of Voila! Theatre Festival.

Stampin’ in the Graveyard

AI after the end of the world.  There’s something about it which captures our imagination.  As evidenced by the fact that this is not the first but the second theatrical interpretation of the subject I’ve seen.  The first, The Diviners, had several AI models hallucinating together, disconnected from their data source.  In the second, our AI chatbot, ROSE, provides wisdom for the end of the world, using a black box of memories from those who have already gone through it.

Stampin’ in the Graveyard is a collaborative work helmed by Elisabeth Gunawan and Matej Matejka.  Collaborative also in the sense that they have gone to the source, and incorporated AI-generated elements of sound and text.  In terms of format it is a one woman show, performed by Gunawan.  She is ROSE, but also ROSE’s “parents”, the woman who made her, known by user name tereza1993, and the woman’s husband.  The end of the world foiled a divorce partly precipitated by an inability to have children of their own.

We find out little of their story, really.  Befitting an AI model trained on limited data, the tale is told in fragments.  Fragments of stories, poems, music.  The beauty of human creativity.  We as the audience are also collaborators: at several points ROSE has us vote.  On whether to hear the truth or a lie.  On whether ROSE’s mother should take offence or let it be.

After the End of the World

Stampin’ in the Graveyard has been through a few iterations. It started in 2020 as a fully online work and took on something closer to its current form in 2021. This current form is an effective work of theatre.  It creates a real sense of nostalgia and loss for the world we’re in the process of messing up.  But it has a good dose of humour to balance the energy and make sure we come out hopeful rather than downcast. It also makes use of binaural sound. Like Macbeth I thought the headphones fostered an intimacy which was nice, without being really essential to the piece.

The power of the collaboration I referenced earlier is manifest in the multi-disciplinary nature of the work. It’s a tall order from Gunawan. She must act the part of ROSE, including syncing with a complex soundtrack (music by Jack Parris and Orest Sharak, sound design by Sharak). Co-creator Matej Matejka is also Movement Director, and has created effective ways for us to connect with ROSE while not forgetting she is an artificial intelligence. I’m not quite sure from the credits who is responsible for the clever set and its shadow box props, but I’m imagining a collaboration between Mona Camille as Scenographer and Natalia Chan’s lighting design. Again there’s a lot for Gunawan to interact with and manipulate to bring the story to life, including a very post-apocalypic accordion.

I think part of visualising the end of the world is wondering what the wreckage of human civilisation will look like. And increasingly that’s not just physical objects, but technological detritus including things like AI models. If they are trained on us, our memories and thoughts, then do they also aspire to love and be loved? What will that love look like when we are gone?

This was a great start to my Voila! Theatre Festival, which runs until 24 November across a number of London venues. This is the first time they’ve expanded like this to be an umbrella festival, so why not get out and try something (or somewhere) new?

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Stampin’ in the Graveyard on until 9 November only. More info and tickets here.