ANTHROPOLOGY presented by Gnarly Bard Theater Company

Join us for the first show of our 2026/2027 theater season - ANTHROPOLOGY by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Nicole Marie Wilder.

After her sister dies, Merril throws herself into her work. She's brilliant at it. She builds things that listen, respond, remember. Anthropology is a funny, devastating, and uncomfortably timely play about what we ask of the machines we build...and whether the connection we find there is really connection at all.

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. 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.