by Charles Kruger

If you’ve been paying attention, you are no doubt aware that playwright Patricia Milton has, over the past decade, been running ahead of the pack. Her witty and biting social commentaries have been a highlight of everal seasons of Bay Area theatre, beginning some time around 2010. I first encountered her distinctive style in her play “Believers,” about scientists developiong a vaccine against falling in love. A decade later, I recall, with delight, the character of a sex-crazed, bible-thumping evangelical Christian receptionist who cries out in frustration, “It’s been a while since anybody hid baby Moses in my bulrushes.”

Milton takes on serious subjects like the dangers of technology and the evils of colonization, but she does so with a wicked sense of humor and a remarkable gift for slinging zingers.

With “The Engine of Disruption” she has a fine premise with which to conjure comedic gold. It involves a crisis at “Bubble” a thinly disguised parody of Google, that claims to live by the motto, “Don’t Be Scurvy” which a founder came up with on “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” It seems that one of Bubble’s self driving cars has driven itself into a collision. This, in spite of project manager Chip’s assurances that the engineers used “the Berkeley Deep Drive dataset, which gives us highly accurate object ID. No mistaking a small child for a speed bump. In most instances.”

This crisis has arrived at an inconvenient time, as Bubble executives are about to go before a congressional committee who – heaven forbid! – could possibly object to Bubble’s plans for industry self-regulation. What is needed is an ethical white wash. Executive Xtopher Wolf has come up with a solution that he hopes will kill multiple birds with a single stone: he will hire his ex-girlfriend, a professional ethicist who has been unemployed after a whistle-blowing incident that made trouble for her former employer, and who just happens to be the daughter of the chair of the congressional committee in question. Voila! Reignite a romance, give a job to a down-and-out friend, and fix the committee problem in one fell swoop.

Naturally, things don’t work out as easily as planned, especially when the senator’s daughter figures out Xtopher’s secret agenda: he has created an AI app that will answer all ethical questions. If AI can paint pictures, write poems and novels, invest in the stock market, drive planes, trains, and automobiles, why should it have any difficulty with our little ethical problems involving war or poverty or capitalism or romance? What could possibly go wrong?

“The Engine of Our Disruption” explores these themes with the intellectual rigor typical of Milton’s plays of social commentary. It is well researched and challenging, but the zingers are plentiful.

And delivering those zingers is an excellent cast of fine comic actors, whose timing has been polished with care by director Gray Graves. As the senator’s daughter, Karami, Chelsea Bearce is an excellent “straight man” to the rest of the cast. Her reactions to various discoveries are a study in the subtle double take. As her mother, Senator Firestone, Jan Zvaifler demonstrates once again that she is one of the most highly skilled comic actors working in Bay area theatre. Each look, gesture, and utterance is played successfully for a laugh.. Mike Tuton, as ethically-challenged executive Xtopher Wolf, is creepy as all get out. Louel Señores as engineer Chip Wingo is charismatically snarky. And as Bubbly, the disembodied computer voice of Bubbles, Lauren Smerkanich makes the most of it.

“The Engine of Our Disruption” is well-researched, challenging, an intellectual romp and a laugh a minute.

Central Works is fortunate indeed to have Patricia Milton as a playwright-in-residence, and I trust we can look forward to many more satisfying collaborations.

“The Engine of Disruption” continues at Central Works at the Berkele City Club through November 12. For further information, click here.

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Rating: **** (For an explanation of Theatrestorm’s rating scale, click here.)

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“The Engine of Our Disruption” by Patricia Milton. World premiere produced by Central Works. Director: Gary Graves. Light Design: Gary Graves. Sound Design: Gregory Scharpen. Cotume Designer: Tammy Berlin.

Cast:

Jan Zvaifler: Kay FIrestone. Chelsea Bearce: Kamiri Firestone. Louel Señores: Chip Wingo. Mike Tuton: Xtopher Wolf. Lauren Smerkanich: Bubbly.