Are “Sisters” What You Make Of Them?

By Cate Rees-Hessel with Flo Mano and Wes Hessel

Being an only child can be very lonely – single children often want a sister or brother. “Sisters”, written by Matthew Libby and under the able direction of Jessica Thebus, opens the 35th season of Writers Theatre. This play showcases mixed reality in a digital world, seemingly fulfilling the dream of having siblings. We see Matilda, emotionally portrayed to perfection by Brenda Barrie, relating to Greta, well played by Chloe Johnston, speaking with clinical precision. Greta is an “unseen” sister, actually a computer (though there is a virtual screen image of her).

The play begins with a 6-year-old Matilda beginning to learn about Greta, who explains that she does not have a “physical” body, but can communicate and wants to know about Matilda by asking her questions. The asymmetric timeline then moves around through different phases of Matilda’s life. Their conversations of events and Greta’s anthropomorphic reactions of jealousy, control, apprehension, anger, and love are all played out in this theatrical work.

The show interestingly raises questions about isolationism – the need to connect with others versus the loss of privacy, humanity, and independent thinking. What is actual normalcy? Do we accept things passively because they exist? Do we as humans become unconsciously robotic, losing our empathy? How do we keep emotions that keep us human in our everyday lives?

This production is quite well done; it seems there’s a trend of diffusing, blending, reinventing, or assimilating to this AI era we’re navigating like the Tower of Babel – is it to new horizons or extinction? Over two and a half millenniums ago, Heraclitus posited, “The only constant is 

change.” Discover what you think by seeing “Sisters” before it passes into the ages November 8th – for tickets or more information, make a virtual visit to www.writerstheatre.org.

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