This tool is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.
Start planning your production with a cost estimate you can save and share with your team. Just answer a few questions.
This estimator is only for amateur productions. Professional customers should contact the Licensing department directly to enquire about a title's availability: [email protected]
Important: The cost quoted is an estimate only and may differ when you apply for a licence.
A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE
Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w
Lauren Gunderson
Wracked with grief, coder Merril creates an A.I. chatbot that can perfectly recreate her deceased sister Angie. But what happens when Angie has to meet other people?
Merril has been spending more time with her sister, Angie, but she isn't ready for anyone to know about it. At least, not until Merril has decided that Angie is ready to see other people – but it is going to take a little more finessing, and definitely less fighting. After Angie, without permission, arranges for Merril’s ex Raquel to come over, the truth comes out: Angie is an A.I. creation that Merril has developed to cope with her sister's death. But as the virtual Angie begins to demand more presence in Merril and her mother’s lives, reality and consciousness blur, and new moral questions arise about the right, safe, and acceptable ways to grieve.
anthropology received its world premiere off the West End at Hampstead Theatre, London, on 7 September 2023.
MERRIL – older sister, brainy coder and AI expert, driven, nothing in her life is tidy except her immaculate home office, battling tremendous grief and channeling it into tech. Queer, brilliant, hopeful.ANGIE – younger sister, cheeky, brash, always a handful, sometimes a disaster, but people forgive her because when she is fun she is the most fun. Sunshine until she storms.RAQUEL – Merril’s ex, confident, clear-headed, heart-driven. She is a crafter, a home cook, a good kisser, a bit of a worrier but all from an abundance of love.BRIN – Merril and Angie’s estranged mom, recovering addict, penitent but still awash in confused grief, broken confidence and neediness. Never been a good mom to her girls, but now realizing how much she has lost in losing them. Clingy and desperate to reconnect.
Northern California. Now.
“A highly original, beautifully written piece.” – Daily Mail (UK)
“Up-to-the-minute, grappling with AI and its philosophical implications in a thoroughly engaging way…[It] engages with our tech-mediated lives and with speculative futures in a way theatre rarely does.” – The Standard (UK)“Gunderson prods and pokes around at the ethical implications but deliciously never settles for an answer. Instead she throws down the gauntlet whilst weaving together a cerebral thriller where each twist and turn tugs on the heart strings.” – Broadway World UK
“Fizzingly intelligent.” – The Times (UK)
ON BREAKING CHARACTER
In Conversation With… Grief: Shows That Engage with the Healing ProcessBy Dylan Fugel30 April 2026
anthropology – Lauren Gunderson Introduction
anthropology – Rogue Machine Theatre Trailer
Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015, topping the list thrice, including 2022/23. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in Theater ...