★★★★☆“I dare say the word computer is unfamiliar to many of you,” announces Alan Turing, the scientific genius and father of AI, in a mind-bending lecture. He envisioned computers capable not just of thought, but of feeling — “why should they not be kind, friendly, beautiful?” — although the ones he worked with were “the size of several large wardrobes joined together”. Watching Hugh Whitemore’s 1986 play in this absorbing, in-the-round revival by Christian Durham, you wonder what Turing would have made of the sleek gadgets we carry today, let alone Alexa and Siri. Of course, Turing’s part in the digital revolution is not his only contribution to history: his code-breaking at Bletchley Park helped to win the Second World War. Whitemore’s drama is electrified…

Source: The Times October 10, 2019 11:12 UTC