The 34-year-old man who happens to be a robot: Welcome to 'Uncanny Valley'

No less a genius than Stephen Hawking has warned that artificial intelligence will spell the end of humankind. That existential threat is treated -- but only lightly -- in Thomas Gibbons' "Uncanny Valley," now at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Gibbons has smaller fish to fry in his complex, intriguing and frequently funny play about the interactions between a "non-biological human" (a sentient robot) and the scientist who created him. The action is set about 30 years in the future when enormous strides in the field of AI have come to fruition with the creation of Julian (Jacob Sidney), the brainchild of brilliant neuroscientist Claire (Susan Denaker), a pioneer in the field. The notion of "Uncanny Valley" refers to the sense of dread individuals feel when confronted by increasingly lifelike robots.