My Dear Beloved

It is the year 2041, the height of the Relationship Recession. People now live with personalized AI lover-bots designed to meet every emotional and physical need. The bots have recently hit a snag, though: users no longer want sex with them.

To address this issue, Milo, a corporate slave at a love-tech conglomerate, is tasked with updating the bots. He decides to extract data from W and M, two human clients at “True Love Consultancy,” a matchmaking service devoted to restoring the ancient tradition of real-people dates. As the bots evolve to win their users’ hearts, however, they find themselves just as confused as the humans about what is “real,” and what is not ….

Moving through fake dates, genuine fights, and “proprietary neuro-affective prediction algorithms built on decades of psychological insight” that may or may not help us love someone better, My Dear Beloved is a comedic thought experiment designed to stress-test what lies beneath our pursuit of love —— what do we want ? Care? Unconditional acceptance? The right amount of resistance? Are human relationships really irreplaceable? If so, how far are we willing to go to have the “real” thing?

A staged reading for an original play.

Supported by Ezra Stiles Creative and Performing Arts Awards.