You have to admire Biased Beyond Belief. It’s a play that has the courage to go questing for answers to a whole slew of those big, baffling imponderables of human life. Romantic love, sexual love … why, and what’s the difference? Parents and kids talking past each other. The cruelty of death and disease. The crap that politicians talk to each other and us. The lies we use to fool ourselves; the ones we hope will fool others. 

These conundrums are explored through several loosely connected storylines in modern, urban settings where people get together to work or hang out: a classroom, a film / TV studio, a consulting room, and so forth. Helping to join up the threads is a baseline story about an artificially intelligent robot who’s been set the task of making sense of human behaviour, and if possible, finding a way we can do it better.

With ambitions on this scale, and about an hour to realise them, it’s not surprising that Biased Beyond Belief doesn’t hit all its targets. Some of the stories are a bit thin, or try to do too much. There are times when weighty generalities choke the life out of the dialogue. The ending nearly does a great job of pulling the whole bundle of threads together.

This is a show that still manages to catch fire often and for long enough to make it well worth seeing. Much of the credit for this can go to an able, hard-working cast. Jane Paul, in a number of roles, shows skill and versatility in giving us a wide range of characters and emotions (but at times could make even more impact if she delivered her lines more slowly and more towards the audience).

Adam James is confident and convincing in his multiple roles. Paul and James work well together; this was exemplified by a big fight scene near the end that really takes off, thanks to their energy and timing. 

Bethany Miller excels in her role as Ernest the robot. Her robot-style movements and facial expressions are so good, and her ‘character’ is so interesting – potentially, at least – that you could argue a case that Ernest is the play’s lost opportunity. The director’s note in the programme says that Biased Beyond Belief is a work in progress, in which case, she might want to think about bringing Ernest’s story up more, particularly if she can get Miller to play the part again.

The play also gets a big lift from an excellent crew. Special mention to Devon Nuku for lighting and Kahurangi Cronin as AV operator.

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