anthropology

A year after Angie vanishes on her way home, sister software engineer Merrill uses every digital aspect of her sibling’s life - social media, voice messages, emails - to create an algorithm and recreates a chatty and comforting replica powered by artificial intelligence. As well as improving Merrill’s relationship with her ex-girlfriend and her mother, this virtual version soon reveals that perhaps Angie may be still alive after all.

Lauren Gunderson says she wrote anthropology (styled in all-lowercase) before ChatGPT put generative AI on the map but the idea of uploading someone into the electronic ether is barely new ( John C. Campbell's 1930 short story "The Infinite Brain" is an early example) and, as in David Farr’s A Dead Body In Taos from last year, faux-Angie’s motives become more and more intriguing. If Merrill does get her sister back, where does this leave her electronic equivalent?

On a bare stage populated only by a standing desk and a TV on which Angie (Dakota Blue Richards) occasionally appears, Swedish actress MyAnna Buring as Merrill fills the void with charming emotion. She bounces around and brings this sci-fi story alive speaking to the disembodied voice of her creation. Much of this new play rests on her shoulders and the action sags somewhat on the few occasions she leaves the stage. Director Anna Ledwich grinds out the best from a talented quartet completed by Yolanda Kettle as Merrill’s lemon curd-loving ex and Abigail Thaw as recovering mother Brin.

As the play makes clear, AI is based not on mathematical certainty but statistical probability; the algorithm analyses the data that it has access to in its model and makes a “best guess” based on the user’s question (or prompt). Ambiguous prompts or data mean ambiguous responses and that is explored here through the stark unknowns around the fate of the real Angie. The information Merrill says she used doesn’t quite explain faux-Angie’s detailed and informed responses but otherwise Gunderson should be praised for making plausible the tech which underpins the drama.

anthology will, of course, be compared to Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and that’s not a terribly unfair allusion. This near-future tale offers more than a few clever and thought-provoking insights into the power of technology to reconnect and revive relationships with those both dead and alive. As much as Elon Musk tries to poison the well, social media has opened a new Pandora’s box and made the world a far more intimate and interesting place. I expect AI to do the same over the next decade.

There’s plenty to chew on here both dramatically and philosophically, especially in the final third. Moral questions arise around what the algorithm is holding back and why. The play ponders whether, if someone comes across “nicer” online than in real-life, why should anyone bother with the flesh-and-blood version?

This work is as much about the Bechdel Test as the Turing Test with its noteworthy combination of an all-female cast with a female director and female writer. It is a sad indictment of modern theatre that this is noteworthy at all and highly rewarding to see a play of such complexity and emotional intelligence which fully deserves a West End transfer.

anthology continues until 14 October.

Photo credit: The Other Richard