East Is South review – weighty AI drama takes aim at humanity’s biggest questions

Hampstead theatre, London
The actors, especially Kaya Scodelario, work hard with Beau Willimon's plot, but are hampered by a leaden, tension-light production

House of Cards writer Beau Willimon's new play East Is South deals with the ethics and advancement of AI. But despite the transformative subject matter, Ellen McDougall's production has as much propulsion as a car in reverse.

Skins actor Kaya Scodelario plays Lena, a former Mennonite and gifted coder, who is wrestling with the expanding consciousness of Logos, the software her company has developed. We meet her as she is preparing to be questioned by the workplace bigwigs who watch her from the upper level of Alex Eales's two-tiered sciene-inspired set as if she is a caged animal. Lena and her lover, Sasha (Luke Treadaway) are being investigated after a security breach. For a fleeting second, the tension in McDougall's direction is sky-high.