Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Theatre and Drama Studies Conference III: Living on the Edge: Chaos in Theatre, Film and Performance , Artvin, Türkiye, 5 - 07 Aralık 2025, (Özet Bildiri)
Transhumanist Desire and Chaos
in More Life (2025) by Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman
Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman’s 2025 play More Life stages transhumanist desires and the possibilities they offer, as well as the chaos they generate in relation to ethics and crisis of self. Set in a near future in the 2070s, where humanity lives on the edge in a world drastically altered by the climate crisis yet marked by extreme technological advancement, the play imagines the achievement of human enhancement and immortality. This vision of the future, put on stage by bringing together ancient theatrical devices, such as the chorus, and posthuman and postdramatic elements such as character doubling, succeeds in creating a chaotic and uncanny performance experience that parallels its plot. Here, chaos functions not merely as dramatic turbulence but as a conceptual frame that reflects the nonlinear, unpredictable dynamics of posthuman becoming. This deliberately designed performative and narrative structure is interwoven with ethical questions surrounding the creation of humanoids as shells, the uploading and preservation of consciousness, and the human desire to conquer death. These concerns have at their core the notion of posthuman disembodiment and are explored through the turbulent relationship between the scientist Victor—who strongly echoes Doctor Frankenstein through explicit textual references—and Bridget, whose consciousness is uploaded into a humanoid body fifty years after her death as part of a laboratory project conducted by a tech company. As Bridget gradually regains a sense of agency, she becomes a contemporary counterpart to Frankenstein’s Creature for Victor, further intensifying the ethical questions the play raises. This paper aims to discuss how More Life offers a critical posthuman perspective on the humanist desire to enhance human life—a desire that transforms into a transhumanist ambition marked by hubris and a disregard for the limits of technoscientific authority, material, ethical, and existential costs of becoming posthuman and as well as the chaotic, nonlinear futures such interventions create for human and nonhuman entities alike.