ROBOTA

A Headlong and Schwarzman Centre Production

In 1920, playwright Karel Čapek imagined a world of AI and rebellion, inspiring and influencing a century of sci-fi cinema. 100 years later, Headlong reawakens his visionary play Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.) as ROBOTA – high-voltage theatre for the age of artificial intelligence.

In a not-too-distant future the Rossum Corporation has done the impossible: created machines indistinguishable from humans. Built to serve, programmed to obey and ready to be rolled out worldwide. But when idealistic activist Helen gets involved, these perfect workers begin to dream of freedom and the system starts to glitch. As the line between human and machine blurs, how do we hold on to our humanity?

Blending origin story with sci-fi, myth with machine, this is a smart, timely and often funny look at what it means to truly be alive. Following Headlong’s “fascinating” (Financial Times) reinvention of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this is an intriguing new take on a Czech classic.

Written by Ella Road (Black Mirror/Dr Who) and directed by Roy Alexander Weise (The Hot Wing King at the National Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing at The RSC) ROBOTA fuses Capek’s prescient text with cutting edge academic research and a wickedly dark sense of humour to offer a provocative glimpse into the future.