The Harmnf

Chekhov’s The Harmfulness of Tobacco gets rebooted for the algorithm age: one man, one VR headset, and a lecture that won’t stay on topic.

When theater director and mixed-reality artist Kevin (as a robot) Laibson set out in 2019 to create a fully AI-generated adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Harmfulness of Tobacco, everything went wrong. The synthetic actor couldn’t act, the generated designs were awful, and eventually even his language model gave up. So instead, Laibson turned the failure itself into the performance.

In The Harmnf, he attempts to deliver a lecture on that failed experiment—just as Chekhov’s hapless lecturer once tried (and failed) to give a talk on tobacco. What unfolds is part confession, part comedy, and part philosophical meltdown: a live show presented as a talk that keeps derailing into questions about creativity, collaboration, and the inevitability of humanity's continued monopoly on art, despite the technocratic set's best efforts. Performed with slides, a "trusty" laptop, and a VR headset connecting to a simultaneous virtual audience, The Harmnf is equal parts stand-up, academic farce, and existential tech demo.

Written & Performed by Kevin (as a robot) Laibson Directed by Parker Denton Produced by Agile Lens