"The Antiquities" - by Jordan Harrison - SpeakEasy Stage Company (Boston, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: Alison Russo as “Woman 1” and Kelsey Fonise as “Woman 2” in a scene from Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“And a remarkable thing: the monster started to teach itself. It learned so fast, faster than the brightest child. And in a fortnight, it could do everything the humans could do but faster. Faster with fewer mistakes.”
- (“Mary Shelley”) / Jordan Harrison
SpeakEasy Stage Company
Presents Jordan Harrison's
"THE ANTIQUITIES"
Written by Jordan Harrison
Directed by Alex Lonati
Cast Includes: Harry Baker as “Young Man,” Catia as “Woman 4,” Kelsey Fonise* as “Woman 2,” Jesse Hinson as “Man 1,” John Kuntz as “Man 3,” Alison Russo* as “Woman 1,” Anderson Stinson III* as “Man 4,” Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson* as “Woman 3,” Tobias Wilson* as “Man 2.”
Additional Creative Team:
Production Stage Manager - Elizabeth Yvette Ramirez*; Lighting Designer - Amanda E. Fallon; Props Coordinator - Julia Wonkka; Dialect Coach - Rebecca Schneebaum; Assistant Stage Manager - Ross Gray*; Costume Designer - Lila B. West; Intimacy Choreographer - Shira Helena Gitlin; Scenic Designer - Christopher & Justin Swader**; Sound Designer - Anna Drummond; Fight Choreographer - Margaret Clark.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States
**Member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829.
Performances:
March 6, 2026 through March 28, 2026
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood / BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. 02116
TICKETS:
Contact the Box Office # 617-933-8600 or visit www.speakeasystage.com
BUY TICKETS
COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.
(Warning: The following review contains spoilers)
SpeakEasy Stage Company presents an intelligent take on how artificial intelligence may soon overtake us all in Jordan Harrison’s "THE ANTIQUITIES," now playing in Boston.
I wish I could say that the one hour, 40+ minute single act show was riveting but, quite honestly, it becomes tedious after the first 15 minutes, which is ten minutes after we get the story’s premise with the remaining time merely hammering home the story’s cautionary tale.
"THE ANTIQUITIES" is set in the not-so-distant future, where we “meet” a team of two curators (played at SpeakEasy by Alison Russo and Kelsey Fonise) at the “Museum of Late Human ANTIQUITIES" who, along with the rest of the show’s versatile cast, reconstruct the now-extinct human past.
What becomes fun to watch in the “A.I. rendering” of human existence is the errors that result from their mis-comprehension of things human, including those things that made up what it meant to be human.
Watch carefully for some oddly rendered items along the way, such as a “water bottle” or “that place” where humans stored things like videotapes.
In fact, if the focus had been more on things like that, Harrison’s overall cautionary message may not have become so obscured by its overwhelming prediction of looming disaster.
(Photo: Alison Russo as “Woman 1” and Kelsey Fonise as “Woman 2” in a scene from Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
With its versatile nine-member cast, SpeakEasy Stage Company's "THE ANTIQUITIES" presents itself as a haunting virtual look back on human history through yearly museum “exhibits,” beginning (at least for the purposes of the show) with the year 1816.
Here, our two curators assume the roles of one Mary Shelley (yes, the author of “Frankenstein” as played by Russo) and Claire Clairmont (as played by Fonise), pregnant with the child of one Lord Byron (Tobias Wilson) and Thomas Briggs (Jesse Hinson), Byron’s physician.
This may seem like an odd place to begin to understand human history, but it soon becomes apparent why this moment was chosen if one were to, perhaps, chronicle A.I. history.
Soon, through various vignettes, the play begins to jump in time, moving forward (to the year 2240), then reverse (back to 1816), while speculating on just what happened…to us?
(Photo: Kelsey Fonise as “Woman 2” with Anderson Stinson III as “Man 4” in a scene from Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
As directed at SpeakEasy by Alex Lonati, the ensemble work quite well together with some very amusing scenes along the way - if only there had been more such scenes to help drive the overall point home.
The vignettes appear to be unrelated but soon become connected and their ultimate connection becomes quite clear.
"THE ANTIQUITIES" is a fairly recent play which was developed in 2025 and originally produced at Playwrights Horizons.
Now, in the SpeakEasy production, we follow how this very un-EPCOT-like “world of the future” attempts to probe human evolution, like we are on a virtual archeological dig.
There are even multiple "artifacts" on display which some folks might recognize.
(Photo: Alison Russo as “Mary” with other members of the CAST of Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
This literary archeological dissertation unearths themes of how, similar to dinosaurs, we managed to realize our inevitable extinction.
Was it, as some have speculated with dinosaurs, caused by some asteroid impact, environmental collapse, volcanic eruptions, or food chain disruption?
Or was it, perhaps, something we did to ourselves?
In Harrison’s text, of course it is the latter, but something that would have been nice to explore is just why these “successors to humanity” would even attempt to reconstruct the history of humans.
Why would these advanced beings even care on what humans ate, wore, let alone how and why they became extinct?
While our robotic curators do offer an answer to the above, it is quite unsatisfying as a response.
This results in this cautionary tale devolving into a tale of inevitability as we see ourselves on a one-way road to a future destination that offers no offramp.
(Photo: Catia as “Woman 4,” Anderson Stinson III as “Man 4,” John Kuntz as “Man 3” and Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson as “Woman 3” in a scene from Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
There are some highly entertaining moments and scenes, with some enticing dialogue and exchanges, but overall the vignettes are quite short and, with a lack of development as to any character’s backstory (with the notable exception being Mary Shelley) this leaves their ultimate fates to be met with little impact or resonance.
Mary has a notable monologue late in the show which is probably the high point in the entire story, well delivered by Russo.
If this is this supposed to be a cautionary tale, it quickly becomes overtaken by its own alarmist approach.
That said, the SpeakEasy Stage Company creative team involved in "THE ANTIQUITIES" has provided a fine framing for the scenes that take place.
The cast is also quite commendable, and each of their respective vignettes are still equally notable even if, as written, the story of "THE ANTIQUITIES" itself falls short in the end.
(Photo: Jesse Hinson as “Man 1” with Harry Baker as “Young Man” in a scene from the "year 2015" in Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" now playing at SpeakEasy Stage Company in Boston, MA. until March 28, 2026. Photo credit: Benjamin Rose Photography)
Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" continues at SpeakEasy Stage Company running in Boston until March 28th, 2026.
Coming up next at SpeakEasy will be the musical “SWEPT AWAY” by John Logan and the Avett Brothers, beginning April 24th and running through May 23rd, 2026.
For tickets and more information, contact the SpeakEasy Box Office at # 617-933-8600 or visit www.speakeasystage.com
BUY TICKETS
Approximately one hour, 45 minutes with no intermission.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
In Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" - In the not-so-distant future, a team of curators at the Museum of Late Human ANTIQUITIES painstakingly reconstruct the past: vinyl records, yoga mats, even grief itself.
But as their exhibit grows, so do the cracks in their understanding of what it meant to be human.
Jordan Harrison's "THE ANTIQUITIES" is a haunting and surprisingly funny meditation on memory, extinction, and the strangeness of humanity.
“[A] meticulously structured and brilliantly imagined drama.” – The Wall Street Journal
ABOUT SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY
SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY is a non-profit theatre company located in the South End of Boston and is led by award-winning Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY was named the Pavilion Resident Theater for the Boston Center for the Arts in 2007 and produces 28 weeks of new plays and musicals each season at the Nancy and Ed Roberts Studio Theater in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.
