Twilight actress MyAnna Buring will feature in the world premiere of anthropology at Hampstead Theatre this summer.
The full cast for Lauren Gunderson’s gripping thriller about Artificial Intelligence features MyAnna Buring (Twilight: Breaking Dawn; The Witcher; Downton Abbey; Ripper Street), Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass; Skins), Yolanda Kettle (Patriots, Almeida; Deep Blue Sea, National Theatre) and Abigail Thaw (Endeavour and The Strange Death of John Doe, Hampstead Theatre).
Lauren Gunderson, playwright said:
“I can’t quite express how meaningful it is that Hampstead Theatre is welcoming me back and trusting me for the world premiere of anthropology. I began this play in 2022 a full year before the launch of ChatGPT and the rapid growth of AI that we see all around us now. Hampstead was the very first theatre I shared it with, and its truly exhilarating to meet this moment and bring this play to life with Anna Ledwich and our phenomenal cast and creative team.
“While anthropology is a roller coaster of the contrasting tensions between technology and its creators, this play is truly a very human story of family, grief, resilience, love and sisterhood. The grounding thesis of this play is that all new technology – like all art – is first and foremost a method of expressing and coming to understand ourselves. Our tech tells us who we are long before we tell it what we want it to be.”
The creative team includes director Anna Ledwich; designer, Georgia Lowe; lighting designer James Whiteside; sound designer Max Pappenheim and video designer Daniel Denton.
anthropology follows a grieving sister who brings her sibling back to life with AI. The play runs at Hampstead Theatre from runs from 7 Sep 2023 until 14 Oct 2023.
