“A kaleidoscopic exploration of the ethics of AI”
Copycat might be the most thoughtful exploration of artificial intelligence at this year’s Fringe. There are plenty of other shows that touch upon or joke about AI, but few shows have found a way to engage with the moral questions such technology raises as its main subject.
This is a one-man play written by and starring Joe Sellman-Leava. The story begins with Sellman-Leava recounting how he started out doing impressions. In particular, how he began with the playful act of imitating his teachers. Then after we are shown how he has developed this skill professionally, the story splits into a dual narrative structure, flipping between reminiscences about his adolescent journey towards performing at the end of school assembly. Alongside his modern-day concerns about the power of AI and those who own it.
The delivery is technically brilliant, using his talent for mimicry to create a kaleidoscope of impressions, in-voice quotes, dystopian images, mixed with journalistic digressions. But all circling around a central question: what is the difference between a human mimicking someone and a machine that can do the same.
The production is supported by brilliant visuals. The paper-covered set of a simple desk at the outset becomes a canvas that augments the different worlds we are flipped between. Live camera projection combines with drawings, artwork, origami and special effects, creating a constantly shifting world that alternates between handmade and technologically enhanced. All of which adds to the multiple threads of the narrative and suggestive of the dizzying speed at which all this technology is developing.
Sellman-Leava makes no claim to offer an unbiased account of AI. Or that he has answers. The play acknowledges that we stand on the edge of the unknown and plays with that. But despite this uncertainty the different strands are pulled together into a call to arms – echoing a lesson given by the teacher young Joe used to mimic – that we can’t just be passive in accepting this change.
This is an ambitious piece of theatre that brilliantly blends personal storytelling with one of the great questions of our age.
Copycat runs from 6–30 August 2026 (not 12, 19 or 26) at 13:00. Ticket are available here.