BBC Radio 4, June 4 2019

Would you let a stranger “drive” your body for a fortnight?

There’s a note on the BBC page for this play which explains that author Jane Rogers has expanded it into a full length novel that’s appearing later this year. I hadn’t seen that at the time of listening but my immediate reaction coming to the end was that the play had suddenly stopped, rather than come to a satisfying conclusion, and I look forward to seeing if Rogers ends the book at the same point in the narrative.

The core idea is a reworking of elements of Frankenstein, with a doctor digitally reviving a scientist who had died some years previously by overmapping the brain pattern onto that of a young volunteer. Luke, the doctor in question, has some dubious motives for his choice of volunteer, and very clearly hasn’t thought through the ramifications of what he’s doing to the person who is revived. The conflicts that arise from that are at the core of the story, although they’re framed with material from the volunteer’s partner, which seems to have been done to humanise Ryan, the volunteer, but actually feels like a sidetrack that doesn’t quite work.

Susan Brown, as the revived scientist Octavia, gives a great performance, and her scenes with Joseph Kloska as Luke are electric; it’s elsewhere the play loses a little focus.

Verdict: An intriguing idea whose execution needed a bit more tweaking. 7/10

Paul Simpson