In an era where AI’s integration into caregiving systems sparks heated debate – particularly following last month’s report on the troublingly “human” qualities of new caregiver bots – José Rivera’s Your Name Means Dreams digs into the cultural psyche to probe what technology actually does for, and to, us.

Aislin (Caroline Lee), whose name translates in Irish as “dreams,” lives in a crumbling apartment, where peeling green wallpaper and a worn-out couch signal a life that’s seen better days. Hahnie Goldfinch’s careful set design, combined with Amelia Lever-Davidson’s atmospheric lighting, shows us both the isolation of Aislin’s world and the vastness of the surrounding streets that press in, suffocatingly, on Red Stitch’s intimate stage. 

From within its confines Aislin (Caroline Lee), a woman of faded dreams, faded slippers, and a penchant for Jack Daniels, barricades herself against time and, perhaps, the slow encroachment of her own irrelevance.

She’s gone through too many “human” carers and her only support is her son, Roberto, a sporadic lifeline who’s gifted her a futuristic prototype named Stacy, played by Lucy Ansell (of The Dry 2: Force of Nature and Strife). So, life is pretty dire.