Six Days in the Life of Mom, 2126
Over six days in 2126, brother and sister Mats and Thena figure out what to do with Mom. Once her youngest child Mats turns twenty-one in less than a week, Nora Mai will be taken out of service, ‘deregistered’ and put out for recycling. Nora Mai is a maternal autonomous interface (MAI), an artificial life form, and the only mother they have ever known.
They can keep her alive if they ask the government for an exemption (there is the ‘exemption directive’ available to them). The only problem is that Mom must move in with one of them to meet the requirements of the exemption. Mats is a fabulously rich professional basketball player with the means to provide for her but not sure he can take her. Thena has a side gig as Autofus, a mega-celebrity superhero who fights super villains around the galaxy and feels her work’s not conducive to having Mom underfoot. A sympathetic bureaucrat who is a fan of superheroes pulls some strings and the exemption is granted just in time. However Nora Mai has other plans.
Themes and issues
Childcare in the future, maternal love, parenthood, aging, siblings, artificial intelligence, big tech, superhero, surveillance culture, liberal authoritarianism.
Production history
This play has not yet been produced.
Genre
Science fiction, tragedy, drama, political.
Acts and run time
One act, approximately 35 minutes.
Cast
Four actors (2 women, 1 man, 1 non-binary or any gender). Roles may be cast with actors of any race.
Note on playing Nora Mai as an artificial life form
Nora Mai is a maternal autonomous interface, a MAI, an artificial human who presents as a mid-forties woman that is virtually indistinguishable from a human mom. Her programing directs her to perform the maternal duties of a loving but overbearing mother dedicated to managing every aspect of the lives of her children Thena and Mats until they reach the age of twenty-one.
Note on an almost bare set
Three separate character spaces on stage which can be in spotlights as needed on an otherwise bare stage. Or it can be a full set with partitions. Lighting is used to bring characters into the story. Otherwise they are in darkness or absent.
Performance rights
You may download a perusal copy of this copyrighted play for review. Performance rights inquiries to the playwright at rights@rbws.ca or the Playwrights Guild of Canada at playwrightsguild.ca.
I’m a self-represented playwright so I generally handle rights inquiries for my plays myself. You don’t need to deal with the big guys (you know who they are). You just reach out to me and we’ll start the process and get it done very quickly. If you’re used to dealing with the Playwrights Guild of Canada already, they’re terrific too, so go talk with them because they can administer rights for all my plays.
If you’re a drama teacher working with students and not selling tickets or making money with one of my plays, then I ask for production photos in lieu of royalties. It starts with an email to me. Then we figure it out.
spookyb 