“Flawless” is an unsettling look at generative AI

09/09/2026

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An image showing a man with graying hair and beard and a woman seated on a brown leather sofa, looking intensely at an open laptop on a coffee table. The man stands behind the sofa, leaning over the woman's shoulder while pointing at the screen. In the background, a large digital display shows a translucent blue overlay with binary code and the face of another person, alongside text reading "Meet Percy. Your storytelling partner." A floor lamp stands to the right, casting a warm glow, and a plaid blanket is draped over the left side of the sofa. — Michael Frederic and Ellen Adair. Premiere Stages' 2026 production of Flawless by John J. Wooten. )Photo by Mike Peters)

A man with short dark hair, wearing a dark blue turtleneck sweater and pleated trousers, stands in the foreground on a patterned blue rug, looking forward with a slight smile. In the background, the stage set resembles a living room or office space, featuring a leather sofa, a floor lamp, and a desk where a woman is seated using a laptop. Behind the figures, a large projection screen displays a blue digital interface with a search bar graphic containing text. — Ellen Adair and Alexander Rios. Premiere Stages’ 2026 production of Flawless by John J. Wooten. (Photo by Mike Peters)

Premiere Stages, the theatre company in residence at Kean University in Union, is presenting the New Jersey premiere of Flawless, a new drama by John J. Wooten, the company’s artistic director. It is one of those rare plays that did not leave me pleased or displeased at play’s end. It left me unsettled with its somewhat bleak look at the potential dangers of generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that learns from its user and evolves to predict the user’s needs and make selections based on what it’s learned.

In Flawless the AI is Percy (Alexander Rios), created by Tess (Ellen Adair) to assist script writers by serving as a dramaturge during the writing process. Tess herself is a playwright, having had one of her plays produced on Broadway and receiving a Tony Award for it. At the start of the play, she is in California, staying with her former lover Frank (Michael Frederic), another playwright and her college mentor. She’s working on a new play based on one of his plot ideas and finds herself blocked trying to write a suitable ending to her script.

Tess hides from Frank the fact that she is using AI and hides from Percy all mention of Frank, spinning a messy web of half-truths. Frank is dead set against using AI as a writing assistant even before he learns about Percy. Percy, on its part, stubbornly presses Tess to keep working on completing the play, disregarding her stated need for down time, and sees Frank as a personal threat to Tess. Tess is no innocent in all this: she’s used plot concepts Frank created in both her current work and her award-winning past work, and used Percy to suggest script improvements based on success factors from other plays. So how much playwriting ability is hers, and what does she contribute to the process?

The main conflicts in Flawless stem from distrust and egotism between the two human characters, which the AI observes and incorporates into its own emerging personality. Tess tells Frank that Percy, her creation, is flawless, even when Percy is starting to behave in ways she never imagined. Frank strongly believes that any use of generative AI stifles whatever human inspiration and creativity still exists in artistic endeavor. Percy considers any pause in the writer’s work as counter-productive to the goal of completion, with human needs unworthy of consideration. They are blind to their own flaws, each convinced their opinions are the only correct ones. And everyone’s use of the phrase “trust me” throughout leaves one wondering why any of the characters trust each other when they prove themselves untrustworthy from the start.

A woman with dark hair tied back in a ponytail sits perched on the left armrest of a brown leather sofa, wearing a gray sweatshirt, shorts, and white socks with black stripes. In the center of the sofa, a man with graying hair and a beard sits casually in a light gray t-shirt and jeans, with one hand resting on his head as he looks up toward the woman. The sofa is set against a backdrop featuring a wall paneling design and a scenic projection of a dense green forest, with a floor lamp standing on the right side. — Ellen Adair and Michael Frederic. Premiere Stages’ 2026 production of Flawless by John J. Wooten. (Photo by Mike Peters.)

Director Joe Brancato walks a tightrope, keeping any one character’s point of view from dominating. In less skillful hands, playwright Wooten’s script could easily have been staged to give the advantage to any one of the characters. Yet this is not the case here, thanks to Brancato and his talented cast. Each of the actors has been given a strong character to portray, and each of them rise to the occasion. Adair’s Tess is driven by ambition, doing and saying anything to win the renown she craves. Frederic’s Frank is haunted by his past and wary of the poison apple that is technology’s gift. And Rios’ Percy is slick and sleek, sounding ever so reasonable while maneuvering others towards the actions he deems best. The drama is played out in Frank’s pseudo-rustic California cabin designed by Christian Fleming, with evocative projections created by Yana Biryükova and mood-setting original music by Max Silverman.

A man with gray hair and a beard stands on the left in a plaid shirt and jeans, gesturing toward a woman who sits on a matching leather storage ottoman facing him. The woman wears a black blazer and looks up while resting her hands on a closed laptop placed on the ottoman. Behind them sits a brown leather sofa draped with a plaid blanket, set against a large blue digital backdrop featuring a website interface with the text "Meet Percy. Your storytelling partner." and a large portrait of a man's face. — Michael Frederic and Ellen Adair. Premiere Stages’ 2026 production of Flawless by John J. Wooten. P(hoto by Mike Peters)

As I said before, I found myself neither liking or disliking Flawless, but it left me feeling uneasy at its conclusion. Playwright Wooten mentions in his program notes that he has been adapting last year’s original version of Flawless based on recent developments in generative AI. That uneasy feeling may be rooted in what we are learning about current societal and technological advances. This is a “be careful what you wish for” play of unintended consequences and the blindness of moral certainty. If this sounds like the kind of play you might embrace, even if the subject is one you might find terrifying, then I encourage you to see Flawless before its brief run ends.

Flawless is presented in the Zella J. Fry Theatre at the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center on the campus of Kean University in Union through September 20th. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to premierestagesatkean.com.