Review: ANTHROPOLOGY at 100 Lives Repertory

A year after Angie disappeared, Merril does what any grieving person might do with today’s technology: she feeds Angie’s emails, texts, social media feeds, etc. into an AI chatbot and builds a digital version of the sister she lost. Does AI Angie help Merril cope with her loss? Does she (it?) bring Merril comfort? Or does she simply give her a way to never finish grieving?

Lauren Gunderson’s ANTHROPOLOGY, now running at 100 Lives Repertory directed by Cat Plein, is a modern tech thriller. But under the hood, as the title suggests, it’s a study of what makes us human in this confusing new age of AI.

The play premiered in London in 2023, but it lands with particular force right now, as political fights over AI look to be central to our looming election. It can be an extraordinarily powerful tool for good, and it can also do real harm. Gunderson doesn’t resolve this tension so much as capture it, keeping her focus on the impact of technology on our relationships with one another.

AI Angie (played by Rachel Bentzen), appearing on a large screen, is smiling and sunny, but something is unmistakably off. There’s a certain deadness in her eyes (or did I imagine that?), and of course she can’t actually see the person she’s talking to, let alone make eye contact. And the Angie that Merril (Annie Kehoe) builds is not exactly the sister she lost. The real Angie was difficult, and so was their relationship.

Eventually, as AI chatbots famously do, AI Angie starts to go off the rails, and the algorithm has to be reset. This provides a stark contrast with real people, who are messy, and we can’t just reset them until they become who we need them to be. What AI offers is the emotional equivalent of empty calories. And also, incredible information processing capabilities that can tackle unsolved mysteries.

The script is really good, and the performances follow. Kehoe conveys Merril’s ever-present anxiety and guilt through her body, as if hauling a physical weight that only lightens in the presence of Raquel, her ex-girlfriend. Natalie Spadolini radiates warmth in the role, and the two share a lovely chemistry. Racquel comes to represent everything a digital relationship can’t provide.

Cyndi Rhoads gives a deliberately frustrating performance as Brin, the sisters’ mother, who has spent her life seeking escape in one form or another. She’s exactly the kind of person who would be most susceptible to the frictionlessness of a digital relationship over the hard work of a real one.

As with every 100 Lives production to date, this is deeply intimate theatre. The grief each character carries, and the fear of further loss, ricochets through the room. Even during scene transitions, when the lights dim, the actors remain their characters, and in the near-darkness their bodies still tell you what they feel. The emotions never get a chance to dissipate.

This was my first visit to 100 Lives’ gorgeous new space in SE PDX. Just a few blocks from both Shaking the Tree and 21ten Theatre, the neighborhood has become the city’s newest hot spot for theatre. Only in its second year, 100 Lives, whose mission is to center the lives and work of women over 40, has already cemented a reputation for producing excellent, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant work.

ANTHROPOLOGY is all of that. I left thinking about the nature of family, how it can be both where we turn for comfort and our deepest source of pain. And I thought about the countless moments in a day when we choose to either stare at our phones or to do the harder thing and connect with another person, whether it’s a stranger in line at a coffee shop or someone we love who really needs to hear us apologize. ANTHROPOLOGY makes the case for choosing the connection, however messy it may be.

ANTHROPOLOGY runs through Nov. 15. Details and tickets here.

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