‘Tabu’ balances sick fantasies and the blind spots of the AI industry

Pulp Theatre’s ‘Tabu,’ directed by Zach Lonberg, at Barons Court Theatre, London from 24 – 27 October.

Review by Emilia Matyja.

Tabu is a Grok-style AI whose USP is AI-generated porn – ‘the newest trader in the world’s oldest profession’. As cases worldwide allege the AI is being misused, Morgan (played by Ananya Sahay), a junior lawyer with all the answers, meets the company’s founder, Alistair (played by Louis Cavalier), to pitch a solution to prevent Tabu from tanking.

The production balances sick fantasies with legal discussion in a brutally logistical style. In fact, you’re often hit with cold water when you realise how industry jargon wraps a neat bow around discussions of rape, necrophilia or bestiality. “They’re not kids, they’re pixels” absurdly glosses over reality with terminology, and these polarities make the production engrossing. Even so, every silence feels pensively full.

The discussion cleverly centres on a trap of its own making: Tabu as an unseen participant in the heated collision over transparency, guilt and influence. As Morgan states, ‘burn everything’ promises a slow spiral that even calls the lawyer’s sense of justice into question. In the resulting convolution, the image of a snake eating its own tail emerges as Tabu itself becomes involved in its own defences.  

Sahay delivers a neat, later throttling performance that contrasts with Cavalier’s anticipatory coin of vantage. Their motivations seem up in the air; I couldn’t tell whether Alistair cared more about his company than his own gratification. Despite this muddle, it only deepens the tangled case. The remnants of the conflict linger in the basement, where the play is intriguingly set at Barons Court Theatre, amid the soundscape’s techno drones. 

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