←Recommendations of The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor (and the Terror the Old Gods Wrought Upon the First of Us Before the Great Liberation)

The community of national and local readers for the 45th Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2022 enthusiastically recommends THE LOST BALLAD OF OUR MECHANICAL ANCESTOR as a Semi-Finalist at Playwrights Foundation. We were deeply moved by the investigation of human relationship with artificial intelligence and the writer’s perspective on machinations of revolution. We were compelled by this play’s adaptation of myth into futuristic and contemporary science-fiction. We hope this play is widely read, finds dedicated collaborators, and moves swiftly towards production #BAPF2022.

This is so funny, original, and highly theatrical. The ways Madison explores communication and language theatrically between machines, machines and humans, and humans would make for dynamic and fresh moments onstage. The allegorical connection to Prometheus and sci fi genre tropes raise the stakes in this piece to heightened dimensions. At the same time all of the characters, human and AI, are rendered with complexity and nuance so that, like all great sci fi, this feels like a VERY human and very contemporary exploration of class, personhood, capitalism, and socialism. Hilarious, thought-provoking, and worthy of many productions!

Would love to see the personification of these machines on stage. The script offers many moments to create some awesome physicality and music in the different languages. My favorites were Thermostat and Security.

What immediately stood out to me about this play is how quickly I accepted the machines as sentient entities... and, subsequently, how soon I sympathized with them far above the needs of the human characters who threaten them. Wetzell uses the common trope of the robot uprising, to discuss worth, freedom, class, and revolution, seen through the eyes of characters who are similar to us, and yet beings with thoughts, understandings, and means of communication all their own.

This play was so fun and fabulously original! I was very moved by Madison Wetzell's story and use of language is perfect. I love the use of her robot-speak. I found myself imitating them as I read! I love HERO and his friends! It's PROMETHEUS homage is clever, (dare I say, "a modern Prometheus") and very entertaining and so fun to read! I would LOVE to see a mount of this! ANYONE who has a Theater Company please check into this play!!!!

SO MUCH to praise about Madison Wetzell's funny and deadly serious play - the droll wit of Allyson and Hero, (for example when the sentient radio Sony asks how they got their name, Hero says "It is written on your face"), the pushback against human assumptions, how the repartee of the machines works to create empathy and a sense of doom for us old gods, and the simple, high-stakes action. I love the monster title, pieced together, how it serves as a label for the play as artifact and as epilogue for what follows. CREATIVITY JUMPS OFF THE PAGE!

This script is an absolute gift to the ambitious casts and creative teams who take it on… and I hope I get to see the results on stage one day soon! Wetzell has created a highly theatrical world and infused it with comedy, philosophy, and, ultimately, tragedy. Truly a masterclass in world-building and allegory. Everyone should read this play—and then produce it!

OMG how I love this play! It's so smart and multilayered and FUNNY! So funny! And with robot poetry! I hope this play goes far and eventually lands in my town so I can see it. A real original with so much to say. Just wonderful!