“Marjorie Prime,”  a play by Jordan Harrison now running at Richmond Hill Players, is one of the most haunting and sad pieces of theater I’ve ever seen.

In the not-too-distant future (starting in 2062 specifically), with artificial intelligence deeply embedded in our daily lives, 85-year-old Marjorie struggles with her disparate, fading memories. She lives with her daughter Tess and son-in-law Jon, and a service called Senior Serenity provides “artificially-intelligent holographic representations of deceased loved ones,” according to a play synopsis.

At the outset, we see the ornery, charming Majorie conversing with Walter, a mysterious, kind young visitor programmed to help Marjorie recall her past – he is a much younger version of her husband, who we learn passed away 10 years earlier.

Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist play humanely, thoughtfully addresses questions of our current AI-driven, digital age: what would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance to re-write our own stories? Will we be any less human, once computers know us better than we know ourselves?

Kevin Babbitt, Jalayne Riewerts, and Lorrie Lord in “Marjorie Prime.”

“Marjorie Prime” is a captivating, thoroughly relatable and often tragic tale that contains actually very little physical science fiction or high tech in its presentation (NOTE: There are no holograms here, in the very compassionate, touching production directed by RHP veteran Jennifer Kingry).

The show is suggested for ages 14 and above, with themes involving dementia, grief, and self-harm. The excellent cast features Lorrie Lord (Geneseo) as Tess; Jalayne Riewerts (Morrison) as Marjorie; Eric Friedman (East Moline) as Walter, and Kevin Babbitt (Davenport) as Jon.

“Marjorie Prime” premiered in Los Angeles in 2014, so before AI has become so embedded in our daily lives, including many online tools and apps that offer a staggering array of answers, chat features and companionship. It’s not just some futuristic sci-fi premise to envision vital assistance to the elderly.

Several AI companions are already on the market (though far from human-like robots), which aim to help seniors stay connected, healthy, and independent in 2025. These tools address loneliness, cognitive decline, and caregiving challenges by offering emotional support, health monitoring, and practical assistance.

While some movies have taken on the AI-human-like robot as horrific menace (see: “M3GAN,” “Companion”), the robots in “Marjorie Prime” are programmed solely for good. It’s the lives around them that are messy and challenging.

Jalayne Riewerts as Marjorie and Eric Friedman as Walter in “Marjorie Prime” at Richmond Hill, Geneseo.

The tender, powerful play – heightened by tremendously moving, mournful, dramatic brief musical interludes between scenes – presents three versions of Senior Serenity. Riewerts, a longtime QC theater veteran, at first is a child-like, playful octogenarian and Friedman is a patient, comforting companion, who literally has “all the time in the world” for her.

Lord is skeptical and frazzled as the dubious Tess, who’s jealous of Marjorie’s relationship with the AI Walter. Babbitt is comforting in his own common-sense, regular-guy way with Lord, and you can clearly see their close camaraderie, and the actors share a natural, easy familiarity.

After Majorie’s passing, Riewerts becomes a younger version of her (with lighter, salt-and-pepper hair), and we see a different relationship between Tess and her mother. Not only is she seeing Marjorie as ironically more real and human, but Tess learns to become more human as well (the Marjorie “bot” tells her not to be so hard on herself, for example).

The genuinely intelligent play is far from artificial, and doesn’t provide easy answers in how AI can be a true help to humanity, but it obviously reveals its limitless potential. The 85-minute “Marjorie Prime” is presented without intermission.

The staff includes stage manager Cali Van Zandt (Atkinson); light/sound designer/operator Jennifer Kingry, set builder Mike Skiles, stage crew Janet VanDerSchaaf, Julie Bauman, Perry Farley and Larry Lord (all Geneseo), stage crew Mimi Sweetser (Lyndon) and set builder Jim Skiles (Colona).

The show will continue this next weekend, Thursday to Sunday (Aug. 21-24), at the Barn Theatre in Geneseo. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Sunday is at 3 p.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the Richmond Hill box office at 309-944-2244 or by visiting the website at rhplayers.com. Late seating is not permitted; no one will be admitted to the theater after the show has started.  Admission to all performances is $12.

Kevin Babbitt as Jon and Lorrie Lord as Tess in “Marjorie Prime,” running through Aug. 24 at Richmond Hill Players.

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Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner -- who has called the Quad Cities home since 1995 -- has decades of experience as a professional journalist and pianist. His experience writing for daily newspapers, public radio and local TV encompasses a wide range of subjects, including the arts, politics, education, economic development, historic preservation, business, and tourism.

Jonathan most loves writing about music and the arts (which he now does as a freelancer for the River Cities Reader and Visit Quad Cities). He has a passion for accompanying musicals, singers, choirs and instrumentalists, including playing for QC Music Guild's 2023 productions of RENT and SWEENEY TODD. He is assistant music director and accompanist for the spring 2025 Music Guild show, ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. He wrote an original musical based on The Book of Job, which premiered at Playcrafters in 2010. Jonathan penned a 175-page history book about downtown Davenport, that was published by The History Press in 2016, and a travel guide about the QC published by Reedy Press in 2022.