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Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn has fun imagining the hazards of malfunctioning android lovers and misbehaving auto-maids – but there’s a deeper message too about human desireOn one level, Alan Ayckbourn’s zesty new play is like a comic version of Humans, the Channel 4 drama series exploring the moral complications of keeping sentient machines in the house. There are robot-human love affairs and questions about robot rights. Ayckbourn even has a joke about an anti-android pressure group, one of the programme’s central strands.Set “some time to come” – and then some decades after that – Constant Companions has fun imagining the hazards of malfunctioning sex robots, misbehaving eco-domestic auto-maids and human-like lovers who never grow old. All it takes is a tweak of an empathy algorithm and a soulless automaton becomes a sexually desirable catch – albeit one with an erratic sense of humour.At Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, until 7 October. Then at the Old Laundry theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, 17–21 October, and the New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 24 October–4 November. Continue reading...