MyAnna Buring in ANTHROPOLOGY at Hampstead Theatre. Photo credit The Other Richard.San Francisco playwright Lauren Gunderson’s latest work taps into the AI zeitgeist with this offering. A loose amalgam of whodunnit and a family issues talk-fest, ANTHROPOLOGY traverses some difficult and deeply unsettling metaphysical conundrums as it explores our oft-uncomfortable relationship with technological advancement. Here, the AI Angie, takes it upon itself to sift through phone records, social media posts and other electronic data in a bid not only to be a familiar source of solace to Merril, but also to determine the likelihood of whether Angie is actually dead, or whether she may still be alive somewhere having been abducted — and if so, by whom?
Keeping it an all-female affair, Anna Ledwich directs her four players MyAnna Buring, Dakota Blue Richards, Yolanda Kettle and Abigail Thaw as the voyeur of a combative sisterhood. Merril’s lesbian relationship with Raquel (Yolanda Kettle) foundered during the emotional onslaught of Angie’s disappearance, but there are signs it could be rekindled. However, the women’s mother Brin (Abigail Thaw) was and remains incapable of emotional empathy or selflessness for her daughters due to bouts of drug addiction and poor relationship choices.
Whilst the largely fresh subject matter is driven along by some sharp and intelligent dialogue, there are periods where the weighty premise subsumes the characters and the play instead leans heavily on the melodramatic shift in lighting states to add a sci-fi edginess to proceedings. There’s a lot of substance here, but the yarn falls just short of feeling entirely satisfying.
