The Harmnf

Overview

A live theater play produced by Agile Lens, written and performed by Senior Experience Director Kevin Laibson — exploring the difficulties of working with AI through the structural lens of Chekhov's "On the Harmfulness of Tobacco." Performed across New York and Los Angeles.

About the Project

Chekhov's one-act "On the Harmfulness of Tobacco" is a play in the form of a lecture — a professor asked to speak about tobacco who keeps losing the thread and revealing his own dysfunction instead. Kevin Laibson recognized the form as a perfect vehicle for a different subject: the difficulty of explaining — and contending with — virtual reality and generative AI. The Harmnf uses the Stage Presence VR platform live on stage, with Kevin's character operating a headset in real time in front of the audience. The play opened in 2025 and has since been produced at multiple venues in New York and Los Angeles. It is produced and marketed by Agile Lens — one of the company's most direct expressions of its belief that the most interesting questions about XR are ultimately human ones.

Credits and Collaborators