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The next title in Melbourne Civic Theatre's series of new play readings is MARJORIE PRIME, a 2015 Pulitzer Prize nominee by Jordan Harris. The reading will be performed at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 4th, at the theatre in downtown Melbourne. The cast is Linda Lawson Jones, Becky Behl, Daniel San Roman, and Douglas Rauscher.THE STORY: It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie – a jumble of disparate, fading memories – uses an AI "Prime" resembling her deceased husband, who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits – if any – of what technology can replace.
The play was first performed in 2016, and was recently revived on Broadway starring June Squibb and Cynthia Nixon. It has only become more relevant in the decade since its premiere, as human interaction with AI increases. It's very cool to have a play that falls in the realm of science fiction -- ever more closely to science fact.
Tickets are $15, and will go on sale on Tuesday, March 24th, online at mymct.org, or by calling the box office at 321 723-6935.
History
Marjorie Prime premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in September 2014. Directed by Les Waters, the production starred Lois Smith. In 2015, the play premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, again starring Smith, under the direction of Anne Kauffman.
Marjorie Prime made its Broadway premiere at the Hayes Theater on December 8, 2025. Produced byTecond Stage Theater and directed by Kauffman, the Broadway production featured June Squibb with Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell and Cynthia Nixon.
Here's what the critics have said:
"An elegant study of memory as both escape and prison. In Anne Kauffman’s perfectly chilled yet cozy staging, the human parts of Harrison’s smart, lovely play are built to last.” – Time Out New York
“Jordan Harrison’s play… has all the hallmarks of the best science fiction; it’s clever in conceit, alive with humor, surprising in its turns, and terribly haunting by the time the lights go out.” – The New Yorker
“Marjorie Prime… is primarily concerned with something eternal: the way our humanity is shaped and warped by the mysterious ebbs and flows of memory.” – Los Angeles Times
“Jordan Harrison’s elegant, thoughtful and quietly unsettling drama… keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it... At some point, you realize that it’s been landing skillfully targeted punch after punch, right where it hurts.” – The New York Times
“Memory is an essential element of life – crucial to thought, feeling, progress, identity. But it also comes into play with particular power and meaning after someone who has been loved dies. And it is this tension between life and death – with memory functioning as connective tissue – that animates Jordan Harrison’s subtly shattering play, Marjorie Prime.” – Chicago Sun-Times
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Event Venue
817 E Strawbridge Ave, Melbourne, FL, United States, Florida 32901
Tickets
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