Marjorie Prime

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Marjorie Prime

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 2m

In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace.

Image: 2015 Playwrights Horizons Production (Jeremy Daniel)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    75 Minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Science Fiction
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • 2015 Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Marjorie Prime

Details

Summary
It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? In this richly spare, wondrous new play, Jordan Harrison explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits — if any — of what technology can replace.

History

Marjorie Prime premiered at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theater Group in Los Angeles in September 2014. The production was directed by Les Waters.

MARJORIE - 85.
WALTER - early 30s.
TESS - 55. Marjorie's daughter.
JON - 55. Marjorie's son-in-law.
  • Time Period New Millennium/21st Century, The Future
  • Setting Tess and Jon's living room.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 75 Minutes
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

"Jordan Harrison’s elegant, thoughtful and quietly unsettling drama… keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it...At some point, you realize that it’s been landing skillfully targeted punch after punch, right where it hurts." - The New York Times

"Jordan Harrison’s elegant, thoughtful and quietly unsettling drama… keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it...At some point, you realize that it’s been landing skillfully targeted punch after punch, right where it hurts." - The New York Times, Read More

"An elegant study of memory as both escape and prison.  In Anne Kauffman’s perfectly chilled yet cozy staging, the human parts of Harrison’s smart, lovely play are built to last." - Time Out New York, Read More 

"Jordan Harrison’s play…has all the hallmarks of the best science fiction; it’s clever in conceit, alive with humor, surprising in its turns, and terribly haunting by the time the lights go out." - The New Yorker, Read More 

"Marjorie Prime…is primarily concerned with something eternal:  the way our humanity is shaped and warped by the mysterious ebbs and flows of memory." - Los Angeles Times, Read More 

"Memory is an essential element of life – crucial to thought, feeling, progress, identity. But it also comes into play with particular power and meaning after someone who has been loved dies. And it is this tension between life and death – with memory functioning as connective tissue – that animates Jordan Harrison’s subtly shattering play, Marjorie Prime." - Chicago Sun-Times, Read More 

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

20 Plays & Musicals for Spooky Season
Annette Storckman
September 27, 2019

Here Comes the Singularity
by Sarah Lunnie
July, 11, 2016 

Someway Else
by Adam Greenfield
July 11, 2016 

Playwright's Perspective: MARJORIE PRIME
by Jordan Harrison
July 11, 2016 

Videos

  • Marjorie Prime Playwright's Horizons Trailer youtube thumbnail

    Marjorie Prime Playwright's Horizons Trailer

  • Marjorie Prime at the Mark Taper Forum youtube thumbnail

    Marjorie Prime at the Mark Taper Forum

  • Jordan Harrison on Marjorie Prime youtube thumbnail

    Jordan Harrison on Marjorie Prime

  • Marjorie Prime Audience Testemonials youtube thumbnail

    Marjorie Prime Audience Testemonials

  • Marjorie Prime at Writers Theatre - Toni youtube thumbnail

    Marjorie Prime at Writers Theatre - Toni

Show more +

Photos

  • Marjorie Prime

    Image: 2015 Playwrights Horizons Production (Jeremy Daniel)

  • Marjorie Prime

    Image: 2015 Playwrights Horizons Production (Jeremy Daniel)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
    Performance rights for this title are currently withdrawn in the UK. To be informed as soon as it becomes available in the future, please submit a license application.

Scripts

Available Formats:

Authors

Jordan Harrison

Jordan Harrison was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Marjorie Prime. The play had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons and its Chicago premiere at Writers Theatre after premiering at the Mark Taper Forum/CTG in Los Angeles. His play Maple and Vine premiered in the ...

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