“Marjorie Prime” is full of can’t-spoil surprises. But the play asks what role artificial intelligence could — or should — play in preserving memories.

The production being staged at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria opens March 28 and runs for three weekends. Matinees are scheduled for March 30 and April 6.

The play, the 13th written by Washington state native Jordan Harrison, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2015. A movie version featuring Geena Davis and Tim Robbins earned an award at the Sundance Film Festival two years later.

The drama questions possible uses of artificial intelligence in memory care. It highlights 85-year-old widow Marjorie, who is suffering from early Alzheimer’s symptoms. Relatives purchase a service that provides a lifelike hologram to become her companion.

The action takes place in 2062. A review of an Off-Broadway production in Variety magazine noted that the play “envisions a day in the near future when we’ll be able to program robots to serve as humanoid companions for the old, the infirm and the lonely.”

At the Ten Fifteen, Priscilla McRoberts plays Marjorie and Ethan Taylor is Walter, a hologram designed to resemble her late husband in his younger years.

Judy Goff-Menegat plays Marjorie’s skeptical daughter and Mick Alderman is her son-in-law. Their characters demonstrate contrasting reactions to the robot, disagreeing about whether it is a helpful or upsetting part of Marjorie’s treatment.

In the background, amid sweeter memories which may sometimes be embellished, is the specter of Marjorie’s son, who committed suicide as a young teen.

A Los Angeles Times critic described one production as capturing “the way our humanity is shaped and warped by the mysterious ebbs and flows of memory.”

The director, Markus Brown, said that theme has sparked intense discussions during rehearsals.

“It is a beautifully written script,” said Brown, who acted in a readers’ theater version some years ago. “It is so dense. It deals with memory and how truth and memory intersect. Memory is not truth, necessarily.”

Cast members bring significant theater experience, including as drama educators.

“It has been a wonderful journey as a director,” Brown said. “The actors have lots of background. The wealth of nuance is unlike anything else I have directed. There are just layers: one minute you are uncomfortable, then you are sad, then you are angry. It is a roller-coaster ride.”

McRoberts, whose graduate degree is in creative arts therapy, said the play is all about connection. “It is about grief and the lengths that we go to when we don’t want the people we care about to have the pain of grieving.”

Goff-Menegat said guilt is among the themes. “It shows that love is deep and complicated,” she said. “It is full of all sorts of things that they haven’t said to each other.”

Brown hopes audiences will enjoy the depth and humor in the play, which reflects the Ten Fifteen’s 2025 season theme celebrating family. He believes it should reassure those worried about artificial intelligence.

“No matter what tech does, it will never supplant the human condition,” he said. “The concern about AI replacing us has a lot of applications in so many places, but it will not supplant us as individuals.”

 

‘Marjorie Prime’

A play by Jordan Harrison, directed by Markus Brown, Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria.

7:30 p.m. March 28 to 29, April 4 to 5 and April 10 to 12; 3:30 p.m. March 30 and April 6.

Tickets are $25, or $20 for students and seniors.

www.thetenfifteentheater.com