Disruption review – anti-AI thriller boasts knockout cast but tech commentary needs an update

Pershing Square Signature Center, New York

John David Washington leads an exceptionally talented cast in a sleek off-Broadway thriller that feels a little dated

Making its US debut three years after its London premiere, Andrew Stein’s Disruption faces the typical battle of the topical play: even with the most expedient fast-track to production, works tackling current events are in danger of obsolescence upon arrival, often left at the mercy of the latest update, for better or worse. As far as plays dealing with AI go, New York got Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal in 2024, which condescended while saying next to nothing about ChatGPT plagiarism, and was marred, for me, by news of star Robert Downey Jr’s $100m Avengers payday. And earlier this year, the tech-industry moral quandary of Matthew Libby’s Data received bone-chilling boosts from unfolding reports of Palantir’s work with ICE.

Stein’s play has to do with the vast amounts of personal information we freely hand over to our tech overlords, and how it could be leveraged against us. It is well-constructed, briskly directed by Hersh Ellis, and with handsome scenic and costume designs by Zoë Hurwitz – both of whom also worked on its 2023 iteration. But aside from a late development that echoes last week’s jump-scare that an OpenAI tool went rogue, any insights it offers about our present moment are either naively outdated or mired in its overcomplicated web of characters. Charitably, one could chalk this up to the three years lapsed since its premiere; 30 lifetimes in cyberland. But lines like “Data’s the next frontier,” or “Technology has made us so connected to everything except ourselves,” would not have stood a chance in 2010.