#EdFringe – Quantum – Review
Huge potential still to be realised, Quantum is a new American musical about the race to build a Quantum computer and all the ethical dilemmas that come with it.
The high stakes start up world is about to be rocked by quantum computing, and Myrah is at the heart of the race, willing to do what it takes to complete the project. In her heart is the possibility it might save her father from his illness, and she’s blinded to all the privacy concerns and ethical dilemmas that her colleagues are highlighting, or to have a life of her own.
That’s about as far as the storyline goes before the wheels come off, but it’s a strong base with a well thought out backstory to start the show with. New colleague Jaq enters the scene to shake things up, but has no backstory or motivations as to why she’s continually sabotaging the project and challenging Myrah, other than her feeble (but very important) defence on privacy and security, and then goes on an alarming and unexplained about turn to try and help build the computer after all. The assault of these women is mentioned often but never explained,
An original musical composed by Annie Scalmanini, who is an Apple engineer straight out of the Silicon Valley pressure cooker, but perhaps not a trained composer, as the show starts out strong but the music increasingly sounds like those built in auto tracks that come on a keyboard. Some of the songs seem to be songs for songs sake, turning exposition and dialogue in a scene into a song (because it is a musical after all), and there’s some weird computer generated harmony voices that the cast awkwardly mouth along to (but the harmonies, while not strong, are much better when sung live by the cast).
With weak performances vocally and dramatically, and a story line that needs a lot of work, Quantum has catchy lyrics and the potential to be a great show. But it’s back to the lab on this one for further development – the concept of a EDM/ rock and roll inspired score is a good one, and a computing storyline, complete with geek speak and authentic start up/ computing jargon, has potential, but this one has too many holes and inconsistencies.
Quantum played at Paradise at the Vault until 25 August. More info
