Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal is ostensibly about artificial intelligence. But I am here to suggest it was written with artificial intelligence. There are a number of intimations and subtexts that might suggest so. Some of them apparent by the queries fed into an AI app as displayed across the top of the set and the replies then received. All very realistic and wholly believable for the current state of AI.
We know that Jacob McNeal’s latest novel is written by AI. He admits as much after telling his agent that it only took two days to write. And we know it is true since we saw his prompts along the top of the set and the volumes and volumes of output that he received back. What is the novel about? Well I have a guess and I suggest that Akhtar fed it back into his AI app and got the play McNeal out of it. SPOILER ALERT: A sad, twisted, retelling of Hedda Gabler with the genders re-assigned and relationships altered…but there are tell tale signs (well other than the queries into AI which are blatantly displayed), like the ‘missing’ and burned manuscript, the wish to ‘recreate’ it from scratch, and finally when a major female character eats her pistol after waving it around at McNeal, all in a hallucination, yet.
And this feels like a one character play…yes I know there are six other characters…but the focus is so intensely on McNeal and his feelings and actions are so focused on McNeal that all other characters seem to fade away (which is also much like Hedda Gabler). And given the computer based nature of our discourse, where computers work via the manipulations of ones and zeroes, lets just say that Jacob McNeal is a ONE and everyone else is a ZERO.
There is something else here that speaks to today. We first meet McNeal as he is using AI to determine his place in the pecking order for winning a Nobel Prize in Literature. Not getting the responses he wants, he keeps editing his prompts until they give him what he is looking for. It is clearly an obsession. Unlike that other guy you are thinking about, McNeal eventually wins. And that starts a whole new set of experiences for the audience as director Mark Clements and his production staff cosplay with AI and project McNeal into a reward ceremony and later morph his face into Ronald Regan and Barry Goldwater and back. Certainly very equivalent to videos we often see on social media and maybe a little reminiscent of certain Forrest Gump experiences some thirty years ago?
But yes, the play revolves around the myriad questions we all hold about AI. So plagiarism, influences, truth, disclosure, what is art, what is an artist, and what is art making. However, you will not find any answers here.
Interestingly, Akhtar delineates McNeal with the stereotypes we have accumulated around male novelists: moody, depressive, brilliant, reclusive, grouchy, compulsive, anti-social, misogynistic, suicidal, and alcoholic. Chekhov is rolling over in is grave. Amazingly Peter Bradbury takes that all in stride and makes it too very real on stage. From orator to falling down drunk to troubled spouse and parent, Bradbury is wholly believable and makes us feel McNeal. I am not sure if we have any empathy for him or not…I don’t think that I can find that in me…but I know Bradbury’s McNeal is real. I know it!
Jeanne Paulsen plays McNeal’s agent Stephie Banic, as an appealing tough cookie who takes care of her client professionally but has a soft spot as well that Paulsen shows the audience in her questions and care of McNeal…but something, I think, McNeal remains unaware of even when he’s doing something she urged him to do and he stoutly refused to do initially (I assure you that this run on sentence wasn’t written my AI). She’s impressed with the Nobel but more interested in the commercial opportunities it may provide. Paulsen stays cool under fire. The other character who provides some push back is Natasha Brathwaite, played by N’Jameh Camara. Camara comes on like the NY Times special feature reporter she portrays here, but she softens as her interview with McNeal continues even admitting she liked his books more than she expected. Camara knows when to be direct and knows when to shift to coy in playing Brathwaite. Bridget Ann White is feisty and intense as Francine Blake but this part isn’t big enough to showcase her whole talent. Hopefully we will see her here on a Rep stage again!
McNeal is more than just a play premiere. It also celebrates the grand opening of the Herro-Franke Studio Theater. It replaces the Stiemke Studio Theater. And it is a major improvement…better seating (comfy!)…better and additional restrooms…and a real bar and better traffic flow through the lobby. And for this very first show, the seating bowl is shaped in a L-shape with the stage occupying one corner of the studio. And for McNeal the gnomes and elves in the Rep shops have created a rotating stage that facilitates the change in scenes and moods and environments. And they are breaking the third and fourth wall. I don’t want to leave out the lighting and sound crew who project and highlight the action but project scenic backgrounds with our change of locales…some of it AI generated since I recognized some buildings but they didn’t seem to be where they actually reside…and city noises in city scenes and rustic noises in rural ones. Sounds easy to miss given the concentration required to fully appreciate the story…but marvelous attention to detail.
and finally, to paraphrase Akhtar’s AI conjured ‘Prospero’ in his closing soliloquy: “Is it real or is it not real?” Well, I can’t tell you.
McNeal continues from now until March 22nd, 2026 at he Herro-Franke Studio Theater in the Associated Theater Center. More information and Tickets Here!
Running Time: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission.
Recommended Age: 16 and up
Extra Credit Reading: The Program
