The Actors Studio-The Trial of Mr. Stone

The Trial of Mr. Stone 

You are summoned as a juror to take a look ahead, into the not-too-distant future, where perpetual life is a medical certainty. The audience/jury is faced with the decision to grant Albert Stone, an obscure, self-absorbed poet with familiar flaws and failures, the costly treatment. Or not. Will you, the jury, deem his potential future contributions to society valuable enough to justify the expense of life-sustaining care?

This trial should be a cake-walk for the brilliant, experienced prosecutor and her new, young assistant as they monetize the poets value to society. But even the most entrenched procedural systems are vulnerable to the inconsistencies and contradictions of human nature. The poets artificially intelligent legal assistant appears to spiral out of control, or is it madcap strategy at work? Is the poet to be dismissed without a glance backward?

This new play by poet/playwright, Peter Fulton, highlights the trajectory that could take us into a social order that leaves no room for the redeeming human qualities that help to forge an inclusive, compassionate society. But fear not. Where two or more people are gathered, there is an ever-expanding probability for the unexpected to occur. It is always possible for humans to do the right thing.