Provocative ‘MCNEAL’ Takes on Heady Issues of AI

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents ‘MCNEAL’ in the Herro-Franke Studio Theater February 10 – March 22, 2026. Pictured L to R: Peter Bradbury. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Futuristic social issues and intriguing 3-D design are the deeper dimensions of MCNEAL, the new play by Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who grew up in Milwaukee and with whom the Rep wisely has a long-term relationship. The play had a Broadway run in 2024 starring Robert Downey Jr., and the Rep is using this dynamic probing of artificial intelligence (AI) to open its new studio theater space, the Herro-Franke, whose modular seats can be rearranged for 200-225 seats and whose staging sophistication is evident in the unusual use of a turntable stage.

The ideas sparking from Akhtar are more engaging than the aggressive central character and the script construction, though his skill at raising important issues is a constant reward.

AI is much in the news. If you don’t understand the moral, employment and data implications of the technology, Akhtar will be your pioneer guide.

MCNEAL pops with ideas and examples of how AI dupes us on intellectual levels, threatens our sense of personality and raises ethical questions at every turn. In this story, a literary giant is the perpetrator of the dilemma.

AI-enhanced phrases, typed as we watch, play with the audience’s minds. Bold, movie-like projection and hologram mimicry dart in front of and behind the whirling platform. Artistic director Mark Clements, who must sometimes feel like a circus ringmaster, relies on a capable cast while smartly using technology to speed the story and our visual senses along. The dialogue is dominated by the central character of Jacob McNeal.

McNeal is a fabled literary figure, not averse to borrowing story ideas for his novels. He is vulgar, brilliant, domineering, eager for the Nobel Prize (which figures in the stage projections), dying of liver disease, regards plagiarism as literary license and, as we learn, is culpable in ruined lives, incest and suicide.

His personality and compulsions become the plot propulsion, even while Akhtar drops telling aphorisms and observations (the best without AI) to fill out supporting characters.

As McNeal, actor Peter Bradbury carries the burden, in sophisticated sync with his projected images and interacting one-on-one with the characters that enter his life. He proficiently moves through all McNeal’s endless moods but impresses us more with his technique than his character development, which veers up and down depending on his quirks.

The other roles live in a quick-sketch environment. Ty Fanning can only project a one-note clenched fist as McNeal’s angry son. Much better is Jeanne Paulsen as McNeal’s acerbic, caring agent. Others in the cast are Bridget Ann White as McNeal’s onetime love interest, Jessica Ko as an ignored doctor and N’Jameh Camara as a nosy, inquisitive reporter.

Director Clements makes the technical elements a member of the cast, with typed messages similar to ChatGPT and a sense of peeking into a black box as the acting space revolves to tantalize us with different, colorful backgrounds.

The play speeds along without intermission, though there are scenes that could have been developed more and some mischievous moments that could expand. Its insights, fortunately, remain more Akhtar than AI.

A number of backstage talents are involved, among them scenic designer Emily Lotz, lighting designer Jason Fassl, sound designer Dan Kazemi and video supervisor Timothy Kelly. As a play, it might not be Akhtar’s best, but it is a clear-eyed look at AI’s double whammy on literature and social order.

You now enter the Herro-Franke Studio by a different corridor than in the past, into a more expansive lobby and concessions area. MCNEAL runs through March 22, with more ticket info at https://www.milwaukeerep.com/shows/show/mcneal.

‘MCNEAL’ Gallery

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Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here. For his Dom’s Snippets, an unusual family history and memoir, go to domnoth.substack.com.