“Your Name Means Dream”: can AI develop a soul?

It is only a matter of time before lifelike machines equipped with artificial intelligence — AI robots — will be employed as live-in helpers for those with age-related health problems. But can these helpers learn what it’s like to be human? Can they develop, for lack of a better word, a soul? And if so, how and who do they learn from? These are the questions posed by the new play Your Name Means Dream by José Rivera, currently running at the New Jersey Repertory Company’s theater in Long Branch.

In the near future, Aislin (pronounced “Aileen”) lives by herself in a Greenwich Village apartment. Her son has gifted her with a robot in female form, Stacy. Aislin definitely does not want any kind of live-in caretaker and especially not a non-human one. Stacy for her part wants to learn more about being human and begins using Aislin’s personality to formulate one of her own in response. Aislin’s son has cut off her cell phone and internet services and cut off her access to her financial accounts, leaving Stacy as her only contact to the outside world. The two form an tentative, uneasy relationship, with Stacy determined to improve Aislin’s health and Aislin stubbornly trying to retain her independence.

Throughout the play, you can see Stacy attempting to bond with Aislin. Stacy’s often-updated programming is set up in such a way as to make her acceptable to her client and thereby become more proficient in her functioning. For Aislin, Stacy is the one being she cannot influence with her tantrums or her insults. As much as Stacy adapts to Aislin’s behavior in order to gain a better understanding of humanity, Aislin adapts to Stacy’s non-humanity and persistence, eventually finding the robot to be someone she can trust.

Playwright Rivera, who also directed this production, creates two different types of character in Your Name Means Dream. Aislin is a fully-formed, adult woman with years of life experience making her what she is now. Stacy is an unformed robot personality in the shape of a young adult female, and throughout the play you see her experiences shaping her into what Aislin needs. Rivera succeeds at creating a vision of a brave new world of organic and inorganic beings coming together, not always smoothly, toward a new concept of a mutual humanistic bond.

Director Rivera has two brilliant actors. Playwright Rivera has written two parts with these actors in mind. Anne O’Sullivan is the cantankerous Aislin, the one whose name means “dream” in Irish Gaelic, struggling to maintain her independence but painfully coming to realize she needs someone else’s assistance. Sara Koviak is Stacy, groping her way to an understanding of the deeper needs of her human client beyond her physical needs. Koviak also supplies physical comedy as Stacy learns to smooth her body movements to better reflect those of humans. It is sheer fun to see Stacy acting as Aislin’s telephone, taking on the physical movements, speech patterns, and inflections of those with whom she is on the line, especially Aislin’s unsympathetic only child.

As usual, NJ Rep’s outstanding design team — scenic designer Jessica Parks, lighting designer Jill Nagle, sound designer Nick Simone, and costume designer Patricia E. Doherty — has come up with a realistic, tightly detailed apartment set, just futuristic enough to evoke a more sci-fi feel in a Greenwich Village neighborhood but not enough to make you think you’re in the world of The Jetsons. Sara Koviak, who plays Stacy, is also credited with dance and movement choreography, capturing Stacy’s learning curve with gestures and gait, Aislin’s evasive maneuvering around the apartment to keep away from Stacy, and a sweet moment when Stacy teaches Aislin to do a tentative waltz. 

Your Name Means Dream charts the close yet uneasy relationship between a human and the robot who takes care of her. It is funny, sometimes obscenely so, but its two characters share a warmth and, dare I say, humanity that is touching and real. I cannot more highly recommend seeing this humorous, poignant play before its run ends. You have to see to believe Your Name Means Dream!

Your Name Means Dream is presented by the New Jersey Repertory Company at the Lumia Theatre in Long Branch through Nov. 24, 2024. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to njrep.org or call 732-229-3166.