The Guide #208: How theatre is holding its own in the age of artificial intelligence
Last year, more than 37 million people settled their behinds into the red-velvet upholstery, plastic chairs or wooden “I’ll only tolerate this because it’s the Globe” benches of a theatre,West End attendance has reportedly grown by 11% and regional audiences have increased by 4% since 2019 – pretty impressive amid a cost of living crisis and after a pandemic that had us all locked in our houses,The increase in attendance can be chalked up to all sorts of reasons: the post-Covid return of tourists to the UK, schemes offering more reasonably priced tickets, and big films such as Wicked leaving people wondering what that Defying Gravity note sounds like live,But I’d throw another contender into the mix: the rise of AI,For some, AI’s arrival has been exciting or, at the very least, handy – who doesn’t want to outsource life’s grunt work, or get an expert photo editor/nutritionist/therapist for nothing? For others, it feels bleak and bewildering.
They’ve watched AI replace jobs, supersede human connection and infiltrate almost every area of our lives.Even worse, it’s started doing it on the sly.From AI-generated articles appearing in Wired and Business Insider (I’m real, I promise) to deepfakes of politicians going rogue, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to spot what’s real and what’s not.That feels especially unsettling when it comes to the arts – a space where we let our emotional selves loose.It’s a sickening feeling to discover that the song that made you feel seen wasn’t written by a human with the same struggles as you.
And that, no, that wasn’t real despair cracking the voice that moved you to tears.But theatre? Sitting with other humans, watching yet more humans grapple with what it is to be human? There’s no mistaking that.Yes, the whole thing’s make-believe, but at least the artifice is out in the open.And everything else is as real as it gets, which is exactly what many of us are after.There’s the real human connection that comes from a shared experience (no AI companions here); real points of view instead of assertions Frankensteined from every thought on the internet; real mistakes to whip Instagram’s veil of perfection from our eyes; and real variety between performances.
And, of course, there are real emotions – on stage and in the audience.That last one is especially important.In his seminal text, Poetics, Aristotle argued that feeling negative emotions while watching a tragedy not only lets us purge those emotions, but also equips us to deal with them better in our real lives.When tricky feelings can be muted with scrolling, and grief sidestepped through AI-resurrected loved ones, perhaps there’s part of us that knows that what we really need is a good old cry in a darkened room.Plus, live theatre is one of the few art forms where digital distraction just isn’t an option.
Theatre doesn’t just challenge us to feel.While AI takes the cerebral heavy lifting out of life – knowing everything so we can retain next to nothing, and telling us what to buy, eat and wear – theatre promises the opposite.At its best it holds a mirror to our greatest societal challenges and asks us what we think.What we’re going to do.A tempting proposition for anyone valiantly fighting brain rot.
But AI detractors taking solace in theatre doesn’t mean that theatre-makers have been ignoring it,AI-focused research projects are happening at Stanford University and the Royal Shakespeare Company; the National Youth Theatre has performed improv using scene prompts from Microsoft Copilot; and, next June, the Royal Ballet and Opera launches RBO/Shift, an annual festival exploring the links between opera and technology,The inaugural theme? You don’t need ChatGPT to answer that one,AI can automate lighting and sound, generate set designs, produce live captioning and audio descriptions, and even write scripts,In the Young Vic’s 2021 production AI, a group of theatre-makers prompted GPT-3 to write one script over the course of three performances.
And, in the same year, the Czech Centre in London and Prague’s Švanda theatre produced AI: When a Robot Writes a Play, a largely “autobiographical” tale.But in true societal mirror-brandishing style, both plays interrogated the technology.In AI, audiences watched GPT-3 describe the character played by one of the actors, Waleed Akhtar, as a terrorist and typecast him as a Muslim.Guardian critic Arifa Akbar found that the robot’s autobiographical masterpiece largely consisted of it “obsessing about sex, which may not be surprising, given the prevalence of internet pornography”.Maybe theatre, then, isn’t just an escape from the perils of AI, but one of the best places to explore them in real time.
Sign up to The GuideGet our weekly pop culture email, free in your inbox every Fridayafter newsletter promotionThere is, of course, anxiety in the theatre community about the threats posed.In March, bodies including Equity and the Society of London Theatre co-published a manifesto aimed at protecting workers.But the technology’s potential to cut costs and streamline processes could also help the struggling sector (despite my cheery opener, theatres are facing unsustainable financial strain thanks to rising costs and shrinking investment), and many theatre-makers seem confident that AI’s role will never stretch beyond creative partner.And, really, how could it ever hope to? Unless we reach Full Robot Takeover, no AI will ever be able to stage a play – even one that it wrote, designed and composed the music for – without those wonderful things we spoke of earlier: humans.Theatre may just be one of the only art forms to benefit from AI without ever being truly threatened by it.
Here’s hoping.If you want to read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe to receive The Guide in your inbox every Friday
Vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat: ‘It’s not our moment’
Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. But sales have plummeted amid a surging pro-meat trend embraced by the Trump administration, raising a key question – will vegetarianism ever take hold in the US?This year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022.Despite hopes that burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans would curb Americans’ love of eating butchered animals – thereby reducing the rampant deforestation, water pollution and planet-heating emissions involved in raising livestock – these alternatives languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US.Instead, a resurgent focus on meat has swept the US, pushed by industry lobbyists and online wellness influencers who advocate greater protein consumption via the carnivore diet and deride plant alternatives as overly processed
Helen Goh’s recipe for plum and star anise frangipane tart | The sweet spot
Late-season plums are wonderful to bake with; juicy and slightly astringent as you get closer to the skin, they soften into a rich, almost winey sweetness. And, when they’re nestled into soft almond cream and scented with star anise, they make a delicious tart for any time of day. Serve warm with pouring cream as pudding or cold with a cup of tea.Prep 15 minChill 1 hr 30 min Cook 1 hr 45 min Serves 8-10For the pastry 300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 90g icing sugar ¼ tsp salt 200g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus an extra 10g, melted, for greasingFinely grated zest of 1 lemon 1 large egg yolk 20ml ice-cold waterFor the plums 4-5 medium plums (about 100g each), halved, stoned and sliced into 1cm-wide wedges1 tbsp caster sugar 3 whole star anise (about 3g), finely ground in a mortar to get 1½ tspFor the filling125g unsalted butter, at room temperature125g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 orange¼ tsp fine sea salt ½ tsp almond extract, or vanilla extract 2 eggs, at room temperature40g plain flour 125g ground almonds Icing sugar, to finishTo make the pastry, put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine and aerate. Add the butter and lemon zest, then process to the consistency of fresh breadcrumbs
Why Portuguese red blends fly off the shelves | Hannah Crosbie on drinks
It has come to my attention that I haven’t written a column dedicated to red wine in almost two months. So sue me – it’s been hot. Mercifully, though, temperatures look to be dropping soon, so we can once again cup the bowl of a wine glass without worrying about it getting a little warmer as its aromas unfasten.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for fish baked with tomatoes, olives and capers | A kitchen in Rome
Al cartoccio is the Italian form of en papillote, meaning “contained” or “in paper”, which is an effective cooking method that traps the moisture (and flavour) released from the ingredients and creates a steamy poaching chamber – it’s a bit like a Turkish bath for food! Once out of the oven, but still sealed, the scented steam trapped in the paper returns to liquid and creates a brothy sauce. Fish with firm white or pink flesh that breaks into fat flakes is particularly well suited to cooking al cartoccio, both whole fish (cleaned and on the bone) and individual filets (estimate 110g-140g per person).When choosing fish, keep in mind our collective default to cod and haddock, both members of the so-called “big five” that make up a staggering 80% of UK consumption. Instead, look out for other species, such as hake, huss or North Sea plaice, ASC-certified Scottish salmon, sea trout or farmed rainbow trout. For more detailed and updated advice, the Marine Conservation Society produces an invaluable, area-by-area good fish guide that uses a five-tiered system to rank both “best choice” and “fish to avoid” based on the species, location and fishing method
How to turn a single egg and rescued berries into a classic British dessert
Just a single egg white can be transformed into enough elegant meringue shards to crown more than four servings of pudding, as I discovered when, earlier this year, I was invited by Cole & Mason to come up with a recipe to mark London History Day and decided to do so by celebrating the opening of the Shard in 2012. Meringue shards make a lovely finishing touch to all kinds of desserts, from a rich trifle to an avant-garde pavlova or that timeless classic, the Eton mess. As for the leftover yolk, I have several recipes, including spaghetti carbonara (also featuring salt-cured egg yolks that make a wonderful alternative to parmesan) and brown banana curd.Architect Renzo Piano is said to have sketched his original idea for the Shard on the back of a restaurant napkin. Similarly, whenever I design a more conceptual dish such as this one, I love to start by drawing it in my sketchbook, to develop an idea of what the dish will look like, and while I was drawing the angular lines of the Shard, it reminded me of a minimalist dessert I’d eaten at the seminal AT restaurant in Paris that featured grey meringue shards that seemed to me to perfectly emulate the dramatic geometry of that iconic London building
Cracker Barrel suspends remodeling plans after backlash over logo change
Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it’s suspending plans to remodel its restaurants just weeks after reversing a logo change that ignited a political firestorm.The 56-year-old restaurant chain, known for southern-style cooking and country-store aesthetic, faced intense backlash last month after unveiling a rebranding effort aimed at modernizing its image. The company rolled out a new minimalist logo and plans for more contemporary interiors, and it updated menu items.The new logo replaced the brand’s image of an old man in overalls leaning against a wooden barrel with a simplified gold background and the words “Cracker Barrel” in minimalist lettering.The change was immediately met with intense outrage online from conservatives and far-right influencers who accused the company of going “woke”
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