Sophia Lillis, Kran Brar, Justin H. Min (Photo: T Charles Erickson)
Data
By Joel Benjamin
Data, by Matthew Libby, is a quietly frightening, revelatory play, now running at the Lucille Lortel theater. Data slowly creeps into the brain as it reveals its secrets.
First produced at the Arena Stage in 2024, Data takes on artificial intelligence, focusing on the microcosm of a small Silicon Valley company, cleverly named Athena Technologies. At Athena, workers are divided into levels based on their particular abilities, or lack thereof.
Data begins innocently enough in Athena’s employee lounge, where two twentysomethings, Maneesh (Karan Brar) and Jonah (Brandon Flynn), are playing a friendly game of ping-pong (which becomes a repeated theme). Jonah acts as a friendly mentor to Maneesh because he has been at Athena longer, hiding his inner issues with his job at Athena. They banter about their work, revealing that Maneesh should have been promoted to Athena’s elite level, data analytics. In his pre-Athena days Maneesh developed an algorithm which, for him, was an innocent experiment in predicting baseball game results. Sensing that his work could be misused, he hid the file where only he can access it.
Karan Brar, Brandon Flynn (Photo: T Charles Erickson)
Into this scene of male bonding wanders a jittery Riley (Sophia Lillis) who seems to be afraid of her own shadow, particularly when it is revealed that she had once been friendly with Maneesh. She works in the upper echelon of data analytics and wonders why Maneesh didn’t apply for a place there rather than staying in the user experience department where the work is repetitive and dead-end.
At Riley’s recommendation Maneesh is called into the office of data analytics to meet Alex (Justin H. Min), the who is in his early thirties. Alex woos Maneesh with emphasis on obtaining control of his code so that it can be repurposed in an insidious way. Alex appears to have no moral center, the results of ensconcing himself in the unreal world of computer technologies.
This job offer leads inevitably to intrigue and spying, especially by Riley, who is frustrated by the male-dominated tech environment and horrified by what toll artificial intelligence, particularly Maneesh’s algorithm, will inflict on the world. Athena wants to adapt Maneesh’s complex artificial intelligence scheme for dark purposes: controlling who gets into and who is thrown out of the United States, thus removing any humanity from the process of immigration, with obvious implications for society.
Riley decides to become a whistleblower and reveal all to a journalist. She makes the mistake of involving naïve Maneesh in her scheme. Already skittish about the deal that Alex has proffered, he just cannot keep a secret, leading to some nasty complications.
Justin H. Min (Photo: T Charles Erickson)
Daniel Kluger’s jittery music and sound announce scene changes while Amith Chandrashaker’s intense lighting flashes around the proscenium and provides a pall within Marsha Ginsberg’s cool white cube set. All four actors are terrific and quite affecting. Director Tyne Rafaeli managed to keep all the technical dialogue flowing, finding the emotions under all the words.
Though fictional, Data uncomfortably mirrors reality and resonates with today’s realities and headlines. The tragedy of Data is that four young, callow professionals are shielded from the consequences of their decisions. This is frightening and is the slipperiest of slopes.
At the Lucille Lortel Theater
121 Christopher St.
Running time: One hour 40 minutes without an intermission
Running through March 29, 2026
