Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to be the most disruptive force that civilization has seen.  Unlike other earth-shattering innovations, it has arrived like a storm.  Yesterday, online searches of specific words or terms delivered lists of relevant citations.  Today, lengthy search questions deliver customized compilations and analyses in response.  While robots have slowly displaced many repetitive labor jobs, AI is scooping up thinking tasks and the jobs that go along with them.

Lauded playwright Lauren Gunderson was on the leading edge of the curve with her 2023 play anthropology, in which a 30ish computer programmer, Merril, has lost her decade-younger half-sister, Angie, presumed dead, under mysterious circumstances. The older sister feels guilt though it is unclear how she could have prevented the tragedy.   In part to help her grieving and in part to replace the empty spot in her life, Merril writes an AI program to create a video image of Angie that she can interact with.  Studded with all of the information about her sister before her loss, AI Angie can think and even act within the electronic world.

But along the lines of the old saw “Be careful what you ask for,” this program is an algorithm that acts within defined parameters.  In this case, AI Angie was designed to comfort Merril.  As innocuous as that may seem, it opens the door to actions and inactions that carry consequences.

Gunderson’s concept is brilliant; the overarching plotline and subplots are compelling; and the line-by-line dialog and action is well developed and logically consistent.  Although the product is definitely interesting, it still seems that there is room for more as the incidents and climaxes, whether build-ups or surprises, don’t produce as much dramatic impact as expected.

Maria Marquis is Merril, and she has left her mark on many Bay Area productions with consistently fine acting, including this one.  But through the first 30 minutes of the play, she is the one person on stage, which strains dramatic limits, though she is supported by a video head shot of AI Angie with whom she interacts.  Interestingly, in the sound balance, AI Angie is louder than Merril, which can be interpreted as AI taking dominance over real life.  On the other hand, it diminishes the perception of the live performance.

A note on AI Angie, played by Tiffany Cartagena – the first question in the mind of audience members is whether the video of her was pre-recorded or live.  A surprise to many is that it is live.  Cartagena was flawless in delivery as if taped in multiple takes – her head immobile with eyes wide open and blinking rarely and slowly with intention.  Otherwise, only her mouth moved with speaking and smiling, as if a “real” computer image.

The central issue is that Angie was presumed abducted and killed, and the police case is cold, but Merril wants to look at it again.  In a nod to AI’s comprehensiveness beyond human patience or capacity, AI Angie suggests that some evidence, like texts from her cell phone, and evidence from after the disappearance were not properly reviewed.  Subplots involve Merril’s relationship with her ex (Alycia Adame) and her mother (Doll Piccotto), a chronic druggie and suspicious character.

With all-female characters, anthropology is cast as a sisterhood story, but it could just as easily be an all-male or mixed gender story.  What it does remind us of is that life takes on yet another new dimension with the advent of even more powerful computer tools, but in the end, we are still people who long for the warm touch of other human beings and that we must be adaptable. At the same time, it broaches the scary conflict that arises when AI seems to be so human that we treat electrical pulses as flesh and blood.  At some point, the lines may become so blurred that inability to distinguish between life and AI will become a medical pathology.  Finally, the story is cleverly a mystery that unfolds through the AI model of the victim herself.

City Lights production values always exceed standards for a company of its type, and this is no exception.  Ron Gasparinetti’s set is limited but works with the material.  A special recognition goes to Maxwell Bowman for his extensive and outstanding video and projection work.  Executive Artistic Director Lisa Mallette as director brings it all together.

anthropology, written by Lauren Gunderson, is produced by City Lights Theater Company and plays on its stage at 529 South Second Street, San Jose, CA through June 7, 2026.