“I built you because this is what I do. It’s my job. These are my tools, I used them, and honestly it’s not that hard – you’re basically a chatbot.”

‘An intriguing, inventive new play… fizzingly intelligent’ The Times
‘No chatbot could surely ever write anything as original and compelling’ The Guardian
‘A highly original, beautifully written piece’ Daily Mail
‘An atmospheric and philosophically resonant piece’ The Telegraph
‘Acidly funny’ Evening Standard
‘A sleek, well-acted production’ The Upcoming
‘Grippingly watchable’ London Theatre

 

Merril is one of Silicon Valley’s leading software engineers, but her life disintegrates when her younger sister Angie vanishes on her way home from college.  A year later, when the police have long abandoned their search, Merril assembles all the digital material Angie has left behind and sets about building herself a digital simulation of her sister.  The resultant ‘virtual Angie’ offers her some solace – until, that is, it starts to reveal new details about the real Angie’s disappearance…

San Francisco-based Lauren Gunderson is one of the world’s most produced playwrights; her I and You was a huge success at Hampstead in 2018.  Author of over 20 plays, Lauren has also received the Lanford Wilson Award at the Dramatists Guild Awards and two Steinberg/ATCA New Play Awards.

anthropology is the twelfth play that Anna Ledwich has directed for Hampstead, where her work has ranged from Labyrinth to the Olivier nominated productions of Dry Powder and Four Minutes Twelve Seconds.

MyAnna Buring (Twilight: Breaking Dawn; The Witcher; Downton Abbey; Ripper Street; A Very Expensive Poison, Old Vic; The Wasp, Hampstead Theatre) plays Merril. She is joined by Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass; Skins; Arcadia, English Touring Theatre), Yolanda Kettle (Patriots, Almeida; Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre and Eden, Hampstead Theatre) and Abigail Thaw (Endeavour and The Strange Death of John Doe, Hampstead Theatre).