James Wilson takes a look at All of Me from The New Group:
In the last few decades, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) has made huge technological advances in speech-generated tools, but it is hard to imagine a dramatic love scene producing much erotic tension as if delivered like a robocall. Imagine, for instance, the Siri female voice and her male counterpart performing the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet: "Oh. Romeo. Romeo. Wherefore. Art. Thou. Romeo." This is the challenge that Laura Winters tackles in her romantic comedy All of Me, presented by The New Group at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The central characters use motorized mobility devices and communicate with text-to-speech AAC. Impressively, though, the play, which sometimes veers into sitcom territory, engenders a winning pair of sparring lovers and a fair number of sexual sparks. |
