BardBot Debate: What do Shakespeare's characters reveal about humanity?

It's just another moment in the life of BardBot, an A.I. chatbot. When asked to write a student's Shakespeare essay, BardBot's research leads to a chaotic virtual debate between A.I.-models of Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis, 1856-1939), Sarah Siddons (actress and cultural icon, 1755-1831), and L. C. Knights (literary critic, 1906-1997). Join Freud, Siddons, and Knights as they argue about Shakespeare's characters in Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and Richard III, until BardBot decides to draw the curtain on its little thought experiment...

This short film (18 minutes), made in collaboration with Creation Theatre, is a teaching and learning resource designed primarily for university students. It was released (open access) on Vimeo on 4 February 2024 and on YouTube on 1 April 2024. The film was performed by Claire Prempeh (BardBot), Herb Cuanalo (Freud), Nicholas Osmond (Knights), and Emily Woodward (Siddons), and directed by Helen Eastman. The director of photography was Michael Garrett.

The script, written by Harry Newman, adapts material from historical writings by Sigmund Freud, Sarah Siddons and L. C. Knights; these sources are listed on the YouTube and Vimeo platforms, along with suggested secondary reading. The A.I. chatbot and models are all fictional, and A.I. was not used in the writing of the script. The making of the film and its wider significance are discussed in this article: Harry Newman, "Between Virtuality and Humanity: AI, Shakespeare, and the History of Character," in a special issue on Shakespeare and AI in the journal Shakespeare, ed. Don Rodrigues and Alexa Alice Joubin (2026).