Headlong and the Schwarzman Centre co-produce Robota, Ella Road's adaptation of Karel Čapek's 1920 play RUR: Rossum's Universal Robots. Directed by Roy Alexander Weise, the production updates the classic tale of robot consciousness and rebellion for the age of generative AI and superintelligence, drawing on research from Oxford University academics to ground its science in real-world plausibility.
Setting and Characters
The stage, designed by Loren Elstein, depicts the operations office of RUR, a company creating humanoids from human flesh, blood, code, and data on a lush island. Dom (Trevor Fox), the company's boss, maintains a Secretary-style S&M romance with his robot personal assistant, Sulla (Tiffany Gray). Activist Helen (Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́), the prime minister's daughter, infiltrates the island in a guerrilla protest, believing robots are sentient beings deserving of human rights.
Philosophical Debates and Plot
The story explores whether robots can develop feelings and desire, as seen with robot Helen (Umi Myers), who becomes involved in Helen's romance with Ali (Irfan Shamji). Questions of fidelity arise: is Dom cheating on his wife by having an affair with Sulla the robot? Like Frankenstein's monster, the robots fight for the right to reproduce. The first half suffers from static philosophical discussions, but the second half picks up pace with sharp, unexpected turns.
Humour and Warning
Modern humour enlivens the production: Helen is called a "Marxist Trustafarian," and Sulla's glitching and rebellion provide comic highlights. The play offers a picaresque version of the robot apocalypse, a warning tempered by laughter, though perhaps too cartoonish to be truly chilling. Robota runs at the Schwarzman Centre, Oxford, until 18 July.
