I sat down with writer and director Zach Lonberg to find out more about Tabu coming to the Barons Court Theatre this October.

Tabu tackles AI ethics, tech start-ups, and artificial pornography. What inspired you to explore these dark, modern digital themes on stage?

Short answer? It’s all anyone is talking about now. Longer answer? Basically the same thing.

I wrote Tabu towards the end of 2025, which looking back was really the inflection year for AI. All of a sudden it felt like it was permeating every space at once. Amidst all these media headlines and taunts from tech leaders about how it was coming for all of us, what disturbed me was how quickly these new advancements seemed to pivot to our worst instincts. AI leaders are always presenting us with different visions of the future, but very few of them are actually pleasant.

Back in December there’d already been reports about Grok (Elon Musk’s chatbot on X) ‘unclothing’ real-life women by creating deepfake photos of them in bikinis with cream and mayonnaise all over their faces, but the news was mostly contained to social media, and it wasn’t until 2026 that X had to tweak Grok’s settings after being hit with multiple lawsuits. Seeing those images crop up back then on pro-AI accounts, and the complete lack of backlash from any reliable outlet (people, governments, the law, legacy media), made me incredibly uneasy.

I think it was a sense of powerlessness; I felt like the world was shifting somewhere I didn’t want to be, and without a sense of collective pushback it’s easy to feel alone in that sense of dread. I wanted to take that feeling to a shared community – like an audience – which is what pushed me to write the play. Now that it’s premiering In 2026, there’s a much stronger sense of resistance to some of the negative advancements of AI, which is some comfort.

What drew you to framing this complex story around a high-stakes, two-hander encounter between a junior lawyer and a tech founder?

At its heart, I wanted Tabu to be about power – and powerlessness. The more I began thinking about the world of Tabu and the structure of the corporation, the more I realised I had to contain the story itself to something economical that could then allude to the play’s broader universe through dialogue.

Looking back, I guess I could have taken the concept down different routes. It might have been a start-up story like The Social Network, or a battle for company dominance like Succession. As it stands it’s one of those contained, claustrophobic two-handers, which is both fitting for the stage and really conducive to the atmosphere of fear and unease I want the audience to feel.

Keeping the cast to just two people, where the power dynamics are strictly one-way, reminds the audience that in the age of AI feudalism we’re all one of two people in this situation – and it’s not the all-powerful tech lord.

The play balances serious themes surrounding Big Tech and personal responsibility with a tense, thriller-like atmosphere. What has been the biggest creative challenge in bringing this production to life?

Making sure the thrills feel earned. When I cast the two actors (Louis Cavalier and Ananya Sahay) I was very clear I wanted this to be a play that generated discomfort for its audience, but not at the expense of the actors’ wellbeing. Navigating the line between the two has been intense and challenging but really rewarding, and those of us in the rehearsal room have bonded so much on the back of it.

How do you use design elements like lighting, sound, or staging to capture the feeling of the tech world and build tension between the two characters?

As it happens, our use of tech is actually quite minimal. I was a bit constrained by budget and space (we’re playing at Barons Court Theatre), so I decided to set the play in the flat of Alister (Louis Cavalier), Tabu’s founder.

The entire apartment is tech-proofed, which reflects how real-life Big Tech leaders live; virtually all of them reside in these massive ‘unplugged’ mansions in California where they can insulate themselves from the technology they force on everyone else.

So thematically (and financially!) it worked out just fine. It did mean all the tension and storybuilding had to come from the actors rather than outside supplements, but this felt more interesting to take on and it was exciting to map it out together.

If you could sum up the core message or impact of Tabu in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?

‘Consent’. That’s the recurring theme of our play, whether it’s sexual consent or the incredibly non-consensual ways our AI overlords keep pushing their product on us.

Anyone who tells you the phrase, ‘It’s going to happen whether you like it or not’ is probably a massive twat – and they might need their hard drive checked.

Tabu runs at Barons Court Theatre, London, on 24 – 27 October – 7 November. Tickets available at https://app.lineupnow.com/event/tabu