Ada

Description

Ada

by Emily Holyoake

• Play about Ada Lovelace, the first computer and Artificial Intelligence today
• Suitable for schools, colleges and youth groups.
• Offers good roles for girls/women to perform relating to STEM subjects

“You may turn the handle, and I will whirr and calculate without error!”

Decades before the first computers are built, Ada imagines machines that can do anything, even compose beautiful pieces of music. Far beyond Ada’s future, a learning machine called Ginny breaks free of her routine and tests the boundaries of what ought to be possible.

ADA is an intricate re-telling of the life and legacy of Ada Lovelace, pioneer of computing, paralleling her history with a contemporary story about the potential of artificial intelligence.

Praise for other works

“★★★★ …a story of human emotions, which will strike a chord with any viewer…a dark, stark story that takes you to another world. It is a perfect showcase for brilliant acting for there is no place for error.” London Theatre

“….Holyoake’s extraordinary play is spare, uncluttered and unadorned. Its directness is deceptive, creating an immediacy and empathy which powers the drama. One of the impressive aspects of the play is what is left unsaid and unexplained, an object lesson in economical writing…” John Foster

“….the play has tapped into contemporary issues surrounding technology and the distance it places between people…” Express and Echo

“Spellbinding…saturated with imagination, sincerity, and humour.” Impact

 

About the author

Emily Holyoake is a playwright and dramaturg from Derby. Her plays include STASIS (White Bear Theatre), REAL PERSON FICTION (Exeter Phoenix), and APRIL (The Bike Shed Theatre). She has worked with companies and collectives including Encompass Productions, New Perspectives Theatre Company, The Party Somewhere Else, In Good Company, New Model Theatre, and Peter Nicholson Films.

ADA was originally developed by Poetical Machines, in collaboration with Haiku Salut and Julia Locascio, and supported by Arts Council England and Nottingham Playhouse.

Read our exclusive interview with Emily about her new play, ADA.