In an entertainment industry that has been overtaken by the artificial, can its writers and performers still find a human connection?
This is the question at the heart of “Comic Potential,” opening April 24 at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse. Written in 1999, the play imagines a near-future television industry that has replaced human actors with robotic performers called “actoids,” but this status quo is upended when one of those actoids becomes self-aware.
The story centers on JC-F31-333, an actoid known affectionately as “Jacie,” who has spent years starring in daytime soap operas. She is, by design, a master of human behavior, programmed with an encyclopedic knowledge of emotions, mannerisms and experiences she can call upon to bring any kind of character to life.
Enter Adam, the idealistic young nephew of the studio’s producer, portrayed by Jovan Roberts. Adam has come to the studio hoping to meet his idol, Chandler Tate, once a celebrated film director now reduced to overseeing an endless soap opera performed by actoids.
“Adam is a bit of a naive person,” Roberts said. “He’s very passionate about certain things, but ignorant about others.”
The reunion does not go as Adam imagined. The director is jaded, dismissive and wholly uninterested in the breathless idolatry of yet another vapid fan. But the young writer is undeterred, and remains lingering on set awaiting another shot.
While he waits, Adam casually strikes up a conversation with Jacie, and is shocked to find that she can think, reflect and imagine in ways no actoid should be able to. She calls it a fault in her programming, but Adam soon begins to see her as a real, full-fledged person.
Sarah Benjamin, who plays Jacie, said her character is caught between performance and genuine feeling.
“She is struggling with the difference between portraying something and actually feeling it herself,” Benjamin said. “She starts to realize what that difference means.”
That realization puts Jacie, and by extension Adam, into a perilous position. When an actoid goes off script, the deviation is called a “fault” and taken as a sign of defective programming to be corrected. As Jacie begins to experience emotions she cannot explain or control, her first instinct is to have the “fault” repaired.
“As Jacie starts to break free of the studio, she says, ‘I think I have another fault. Something must be wrong. It’s not me, it’s my programming,’” Benjamin said. “She genuinely feels that is a barrier to having a relationship with Adam.”
Barbara Heninger, who plays multiple ensemble roles in the show, noted that Jacie’s confusion mirrors something many real-world humans experience, especially young people coming of age and grappling with new thoughts and feelings.
“Think about being young and facing emotions you don’t know how to handle,” Heninger said. “A lot of times you think there’s something wrong with you. She’s not that different from a teenager.”
Roberts said Adam’s naivete turns out to be his strength, and his open-mindedness is what cracks open the status quo to challenge others’ preconceptions.
“Throughout the story he grows,” he said. “He learns not only how to love, but how to stand up for what he wants and believes in, whatever the circumstances.”
Director Tom Shamrell said while the production resembles a romantic comedy on the surface, real social commentary runs throughout the narrative.
“This play holds up a mirror to society,” to challenge our preconceived notions, Shamrell said. “These female characters are supposed to be like this, these male characters are supposed to be like that—and then they never are. The more we try to put ourselves in boxes, the more we discover we’re round pegs in square holes.”
Shamrell said the play finds particular relevance at this cultural moment. Alan Ayckbourn wrote “Comic Potential” more than a quarter century ago, but its commentary on artificial intelligence, creative authorship and what it means to be human have gained new relevance as AI proliferates in humans’ daily lives.
“There’s a lot of interesting interplay that probably wasn’t relevant even 10 years ago, but is now very relevant given the challenges AI presents to society,” Shamrell said. “It’s the same argument, over and over again: computers will take our jobs, AI will replace us. There is something inherently human in humans. We’re not clean, we’re not straightforward, we’re messy. That spark can come from anywhere.”
For all its thematic ambition, Shamrell is quick to say the show is, at its core, meant to entertain.
“I hope they go away having enjoyed a comedy,” he said, “and a little wiser about how we all fit into this.”
Performances run for three weekends beginning April 24, with shows on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. For tickets and more information, visit svct.org/2026_comic.
