You Matched With...
Ghosted by Adam, the story follows Em as she spirals in her bedroom at 2 am. Trying to find some sense of security, she turns to ChatGPT, throwing increasingly desperate prompts at it.
When none of its suggestions for emotional closure seem to land, the AI launches a Beta version, generating a series of 'Romantic Accountability Avatars'. As past matches, situationships, and even relationships materialise in her bedroom, Em is forced to confront her own attachment patterns.
While the tone is light, surreal, and comedic, the piece looks at the commodification of our basic need for connection, learning to sit with your feelings rather than retreating into intellect, and the effects of turning to an app instead of a fellow human being.
Due to my background in online marketing, I’m naturally interested in the role technology plays in our lives. With the rise in people using AI as a personal therapist, I knew I wanted to write something around that. Having spent a fair amount of time over the past few years thinking about what genuine connection means to me, attachment styles, my own patterns, and modern dating in general, the story naturally lent itself to a romcom.
When I re-read A Christmas Carol a while ago, the idea crystallised into: What if, instead of the Ghost of Christmas Past, we had the Ghost of Matches Past?
Would you trust AI with your love life?
Pleasance Theatre
27th - 29th November 2025
Gallery
You Matched With… was one of two pieces selected by this year’s associate artists for Week 1 of Pleasance’s Futures Festival, exploring the impact of AI and what it means to be human in a rapidly shifting digital age.
Reviews
Everything Theatre ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Putting the intelligence into AI, 'You Matched With...' dissects the disasters of digital dating with an all-too-relatable comedy that 'holds space' and hangs us all out to dry.
Writer Diana Hognogi turns to satire as she delves into one woman’s spiral into Chatbot dependency.
Hognogi masterfully blends romantic faux pas with a sinister social commentary as the audience relate to Em’s tussle between soundbite affirmation and free will.
In humanising AI, Hognogi raises a pertinent debate around the global abuse of artificial intelligence as a drain on human existence and our natural resources. This is counterbalanced by the ease and effectiveness that this mind-boggling technology offers so neither Em nor her Chatbot are unfairly demonised.
You Matched With… is a uniquely computerised cocktail of rom-com and social sci-fi that lands perfectly in this AI boom melee of moral dilemma. A revival should surely be considered to see just how far this artificial fantasy becomes our reality.
The Spy In The Stalls ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
A light hearted exploration of the intersection between technology and intimacy.
Theatre in the ‘modern dating’ genre can often be crass or reductive, but that couldn’t be further from where we land with You Matched With… While we cover a lot, from therapy speak to attachment styles, it never feels like a box ticking exercise.
Diana Hognogi’s script is tightly woven, striking a careful balance between poking fun at the current state of romance, without overtly judging the heroine, its dialogue light as a feather.
If you’ve ever wondered which first date feelings are real and which are fake, or whether AI will help or hinder your pursuit of love, then you’ll find something to ponder on the way home in this intriguing script.
An extended version is scheduled for a three-night run between 26 - 28 March 2026, at Etcetera Theatre, starting at 9 pm, as part of the Women Writers Festival.
Creative Team:
Em - Evangeline Beaven
Elliot - Andrew Friedman
Tom - Samuel Grecco
ChatGPT - Alex McCaragher
Director - Hannah O'Reilly
Writer - Diana Hognogi
Producer - Clara Courty-Zanca (EnRoute Theatre)