Is There Work on Mars explores the illogical racism of immigration systems, ableist classroom environments, and the woes of feeling like an outsider no matter where you try to go.
Written and performed by Yafei Zheng, Is There Work on Mars explores the illogical racism of immigration systems. Set in a future time that feels eerily close to now, Yafei Zheng performs the role of Examinee/Xue in the midst of a SpaceX Workers Immigration Route exam. Operated by an AI examiner, this exam tests your supposed physical and mental suitability to working on Mars. Xue is applying to work as a lawyer for Mars’ new elite population of Earth’s wealthiest former inhabitants. The exam performs these tests in a variety of ways; two chairs are placed on either side of the stage and with each ‘beep,’ played at frequent intervals, Xue is to jog from one chair to the other. The system asks Xue a variety of questions that test her academic capabilities, such as her ability to perform mental arithmetic, in addition to some suspicious personal questions. As more questions regarding Xue’s nationality and heritage come up, the system’s racial bias is quickly exposed. As the questions continue to increase in hostility, so the process begins to spiral out of control.
The exam is interspersed with memory recall exercises. The system puts Xue into an almost trans-like state in which we with Xue travel back in time to relive a memory from her past. This structure enables us to slowly learn more about Xue’s life in step with SpaceX’s immigration system. As new questions come up about Xue, so the snippets of her life explain why she answers as she does. We see Xue’s experience in Grade 1 of primary school back home in China – the rules regarding procedure and policy, the admonition of her inability to answer questions to the desired standard and her subsequent rebuke of her personhood beyond academics. These shed light on the memory recalls to follow that catalogue her experience as an international student at an American university, in which she experienced an equally hostile environment. The SpaceX AI system catalogues Xue’s answers and memories, soon to reveal its decision on her immigration status that will alter Xue’s life forever.
Is There Work on Mars is a thought-provoking play that accurately depicts the insipid structure of immigration systems. It displays the unending frustrations that come of trying to work within a system that is fundamentally designed to reject you. With a run-time of 40 minutes, this speedy production packs a definite punch, and can at the very least leave a British audience wholly more informed of the trials and tribulations that those deprived of a Western passport consistently experience.