←Recommendations of Not Like Us (a ten minute play)

Drawing from a tradition that started with Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (who was in fact the doctor, not the monster in the original novel), Mark Levine's Arthur gives his wife a present that goes horribly wrong. Little Topsy, the innocent scientifically manufactured Neanderthal, doesn't understand simple commands and as a result is treated horribly first by the husband and then the wife. Funny as the play is, it is also a parable about how racism and speciesism and other such isms begin, and how well-meaning people are oblivious to their own cruelties. Levine has created a very necessary play here.

Disturbing but delightful...

What a treasure it was to see this short play by MARK HARVEY LEVINE at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. This original short play had me laughing one minute and terribly uncomfortable the next... exactly what LEVINE wanted and designed.

"They" "Them" "These" - It is a short leap form concern and humanity to superiority and dominance.

This little hand grenade of a play is a powerful look at how technology -- especially digital tech -- may advance seemingly at light-speed, becoming more sophisticated every day, but human nature doesn't evolve. In fact, in may devolve. I was torn between laughing at the absurd abuse depicted here and covering my eyes and ears out of fear during a reading at the 2023 Midwest Dramatists Conference. And the ending will stay with you -- uncomfortably so. Easy to stage, great roles -- should be produced!

Mark Harvey Levine’s ten-minute play, “Not Like Us”, takes a unique situation to tell us a story about racism. I am a great admirer of Mr. Levine’s works and this short tale was no disappointment.

Mark Harvey Levine’s “Not Like Us” is a brutally mean and sadly honest look at a potential future. I mean this as the best kind of compliment you can give a play like this. A horrifying look at the ease with which we can accept the someone is “not like us” and deserves whatever treatment we give them. You may laugh uncomfortably at times but the message will stay with you.

In an age of AI and ChatGPT, what comes next? Genetically-engineered servants who are expected to obey every word and withstand the abuse that comes with being treated as not-quite-human? Even if we take it as face value and forget the allegorical possibilities, it's still a harrowing tale of how we treat those we expect to wait on us and suffer in silence. Mark Harvey Levine's staging abilities are legendary, but this piece, even as seen in a reading at Midwest Dramatists 2023, leaps out at you and makes you shudder and think.

A cautionary tale? A truth? Could we be going there? In our fractured world, Levine offers a solution to what is drudgery for the privileged. Are you a human if you are bio-engineered? Truthfully, the play scared me to death. Because I could hear politicians defending the abuse. Would love to see this taken up in schools and universities.

Read this play now.

Every moment, every syllable, every razor-edged choice Mark Harvey Levine makes in "Not Like Us" -- pay attention to the character names! -- raises my hackles. Levine shows us the evil intersection of racism, slavery, greed, corrupted egos, utter lack of empathy, and probably other gross traits of the privileged I can't name right now. But an audience can't avert its eyes.

This play is painful, like a blister. It's a shaming history lesson. It's a warning about the present. It's dangerous, acidic, and desperately needed. Audiences are going to be knocked onto their asses.

Not exactly the present you expect to open. What has Arthur done? A revealing look at how we will justify the means to our desires no matter the cost to others.