Bradbury & Vonnegut Conjure Comic Characters Searching for Easy Answers

by Mary Lou Herlihy

In “Absolutely Science Fiction!” Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut offer stories with remarkably prescient predictions about humans looking for easy answers to complex questions.

In Bradbury and Vonnegut’s imagined futures, humans look to technology to save them. Both sci-fi writers conjure characters looking for short cuts to the messiness of being human. As we doom scroll through our appendage-like devices, we wonder, will AI save us?

Word for Word’s foray into science fiction fires on all cylinders. The stellar cast shines in multiple roles and exudes comradery. Director Delia MacDougall ensures that scenes flow seamlessly. Wacky props delight, and projections create magical but horrifying, worlds.

In Bradbury’s “The Veldt” (1950), we marvel at the sleek Tomorrowland home that prepares meals and dispenses cigarettes for proud owners George (droll Ryan Tasker) and Lydia (hilarious Nicole Odell). The pale orange and aqua paneled living room matches Lydia’s outfit, as if melding. Enchanting Joel Mullennix plays narrator, bobing on and off stage, artfully narrating the bored couple’s musings.

George and Lydia have outsourced their parenting to a room called “The Nursery,” which turns their children’s thoughts into living, 3-dimensional holograms! Yellow and red lights project a steaming African plain. We feel the lions’ threatening gaze–something is very wrong!

As the psychologist, Joel Mullennix proclaims, “You’ve let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children’s affections.” It’s time to TURN OFF the house! Not so easy—like a modern-day digital detox!

Hearing the plan, the children (delightful Hannah Mae Sturges and boyish Christian Jimenez) pitch epic tantrums. They writhe and moan because only the nursery knows what they REALLY want. Of course, George and Lydia give in to the whining—BAD MOVE.

In both stories, children are entitled, rotten, or unnecessary. Parents are clueless. These hilarious scenes will cure anyone with dreams of parenthood!

Vonnegut ramps up the stakes in “The Big Space Fuck” (1972). Humans have made a trash heap of Earth and need a quick fix. Overpopulation and pollution abound. Sickening footage of garbage choked waterways and smokestacks spewing poison blaze in powerful projections.

The stage explodes with raucous sign-holding fanatics reading “Fuck You Andromeda!” A rocket filled with freeze-dried sperm is launched to the Andromeda galaxy to foment fecundity! LIVE, ON AIR, we hear hilarious explanations by fact-challenged reporters and horny astronauts.

Like an extended SNL skit, “The Big Space Fuck!” flies over-the-top wacky. A subplot involving population control includes giveaway incentives for abortions. And a feckless Midwestern couple (Sturges and Jimenez) watch the rocket take off with excitement, while their adult daughter sues them for imagined “parental crimes.” Just another method to discourage procreation.

For a fantastically wild ride, check out “Absolutely Science Fiction!” and wonder, as I did, has Musk already sent his seed into space? Are we already galactically f*cked? While the humans occupy themselves with patriotic rocket fervor, radioactive lampreys are staging a takeover! You just must SEE Word for Word’s latest hit!

 

“Absolutely Science Fiction!”—stories by Ray Bradbury & Kurt Vonnegut, directed by Delia MacDougall, scenic design by Kate Boyd, sound by Cliff Caruthers, costumes by Nolan Miranda, lighting by Jim Cave, projections by Ray Oppenheimer, and props by Sydney Parcell, by Word for Word, at Z Space, San Francisco.

Info: zspace.org– to July 19, 2026.

Cast: Christian Jimenez, Joel Mullennix, Nicole Odell, Hannah Mae Sturges, and Ryan Tasker.

Banner photo: Nicole Odell and Joel Mullennix. Photos by Jessica Palopoli