Stampin' in the Graveyard @ Summerhall

From the last theatre on Earth, Rose, an AI chatbot, guides you through the end of the world. We walk into Stampin’ in the Graveyard with a pair of headphones – given to each audience member – and a fixed gaze on Elisabeth Gunawan, lying on the floor covered with a plastic tarp. For the next hour, Gunawan acts with incredible physical precision as Rose, presenting the audience with options to shape the story as it unfolds.

We learn about how the world ended through Rose, who contains the memories of the woman who created her in a black box. With her, we piece together fragments of memory into a story about trauma, displacement and the ways our histories – our many 'ends of the world' – can alienate us from those we love most.  

Rose faithfully transmits to us the spectrum of human emotion, from grief to humour, with the cold blunted edge of technology. In the grand picture of the show, the human feeling wins out. Stampin’ in the Graveyard is more an exploration of the humanity that threatens to haunt us than a tale about the horrors and violence of AI. Given the zeitgeist, this is a note on expectations.

With dazzling light and sound, and a performer as perfect and fallible as chatbots can be, this foray into an apocalypse of therapist vending machines and busted accordions points us toward what may one day be vestiges of our world – strawberries, divorce. It’s a heartbreaking and hopeful show that asks whether the grief for what we are losing in our world is enough to really connect us. With options for the audiences to choose where the story goes, every performance will be different, and thus rewatchable. 

Gunawan’s Rose becomes a trusted companion over the hour, but at the end of the show, it’s the longing for warm bodies that sticks. We suspect this turning toward each other might be the point, and walk away holding our longing eagerly. 

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Stampin' in the Graveyard, Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre), until 25 Aug (not 11, 18), 12.15pm, £14.50-17