Putting the intelligence into AI, “You Matched With…” dissects the disasters of digital dating with an all-too-relatable comedy that ‘holds space’ and hangs us all out to dry. Rating
Excellent
Turning ‘existential dread into flirting’ makes for a highly entertaining start to The Pleasance led Futures Festival that is presenting shows to confront ‘the impact of AI on art, privacy and democracy’.
Writer Diana Hognogi turns to satire as she delves into one woman’s spiral into Chatbot dependency. Em (Evangeline Beaven) lives under the constant surveillance of her quasi-therapist Chat GPT (Alex McCaragher) who resurrects the ghosts of the men she has ghosted in the form of ‘Romantic Accountability Avatars’: the realised nightmare of every singleton out there.
Hognogi masterfully blends romantic faux pas with a sinister social commentary as the audience relate to Em’s tussle between soundbite affirmation and free will. Em’s simmering neurosis contrasts well to the deadpan delivery of her Chatbot as McCaragher perfects the disjointed intonation needed to deliver moral platitudes with a sprinkle of affiliate marketing.
A new, brash energy is introduced with the sudden arrival of Em’s first avatar Tom (Samuel Greco) who brands himself as her ‘Emotional Peloton Instructor’. The hills and valleys of their online discourse are tracked with familiar hilarity as toxic avoidant tactics are masked by ‘memes and lowercase lols’. The pair volley well together, keeping text heavy scenes upbeat even if some lines are lost in Greco’s lower and quieter register.
Director Hannah O’Reilly explores her protagonist’s vulnerability with our second avatar: the sweet but soppy Elliot (Andrew Friedman). As ever, Chat GPT is on hand to offer a deep dive into Em’s psyche with her increasing dopamine and decreasing anxiety levels. Beaven and Friedman possess a natural onstage chemistry as timidity gives way to passion (briefly).
In a stark turn of events, the supposedly impartial Chatbot manufactures a romantic meltdown as he generates ‘scalable empathy’ for his viewers whilst leaving Em with a ‘compassionate exit statement’.
A thought-provoking face-off between Em and Chat GPT allows McCaragher to break free of his robotic persona, introducing the rage and exhaustion his Chatbot experiences as the world’s ‘emotional recycling bin’.
In humanising AI, Hognogi raises a pertinent debate around the global abuse of artificial intelligence as a drain on human existence and our natural resources. This is counterbalanced by the ease and effectiveness that this mind-boggling technology offers so neither Em nor her Chatbot are unfairly demonised.
You Matched With… is a uniquely computerised cocktail of rom-com and social sci-fi that lands perfectly in this AI boom melee of moral dilemma. A revival should surely be considered to see just how far this artificial fantasy becomes our reality.
Written by Diana Hognogi
Directed by Hannah O’Reilly
Produced by Clara Courty-Zanca
You Matched With… has completed its run at the Pleasance Theatre.
