Constant companions

“He’s obsessed with that wretched machine. I dread the thought of him ruining his whole life over it. Recently, he’s been threatening to run away with it.”
From “Constant Companions”

Are machines better than humans? Definitely yes, says lawyer Lorraine, after falling in love with the android JAN60: finally a man who never contradicts her and is great in bed to boot, especially as he doesn’t age. Don, on the other hand, being single, decides to order a sex robot straight away, but ignores the instruction manual, which leads to his flat being left in a state of chaos.
Meanwhile, Winston, an IT expert, develops romantic feelings for the automated domestic worker ED5, without realising that she is cunningly exploiting him. Disappointed by their ‘real’ contemporaries and seduced by the possibilities of AI, Alan Ayckbourn’s characters become entangled in relationships that soon start to show serious flaws.

“One of the brilliant twists in Ayckbourn’s play is the realisation that when we create robots in our own image, they simultaneously become a parody of us – an attack on our vanity long before they threaten our existence.”
“Daily Mail”