Enter the world of ROBOTA

ROBOTA is our next Headlong production, coming to Oxford this July. Writer Ella Road (Black Mirror/Dr Who) is re-imagining the visionary Czech classic R.U.R, by Karel Čapek, giving us a new way to think about our relationship to AI. 

Čapek’s satire has had a far-reaching influence on popular culture, actually giving us the term ‘robot’ and inspiring many a robot rebellion seen on our screens. This wry new adaptation brings the discussion into the 21st century.

Set in a not-too-distant future, we see AI, robots and humans finding new ways to live together… or maybe not. 

We caught up with Ella, director Roy Alexander Weise and designer Loren Elstein to find out more about the design for the show, its eco-credentials and what we can expect when we enter the world of ROBOTA.

Roy: “We are in a really exciting place - experiencing the beautiful thing that happens on new writing projects - the chicken and egg of the script and design. What comes first? In some areas Loren & I have clear ideas and sure offers for the design. In some we are still discovering and still playing.”

As well as designing for a play which is still being written, the team are also creating this world in an entirely new theatrical space. ROBOTA will be the inaugural production in the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford.

Roy: “It’s exciting to be working on a project launching a theatre space, discovering what it is capable of. We are making choices which are playing with and celebrating the meeting of this project with the space - the newness.”

Loren:“We are making a design that is in conversation with the space. So, for example, backstage might be in full view. Or we might use the existing walls. We want it to feel theatrical and playful.”

Ella: “Yes, we are thinking about how, by not masking the space, we can play with reality and unreality. Here are the objects we’re going to use to make this story for you. Come and play with us. It’s about inviting people in, both to the robot testing lab and also to the game of making a play.”

A new look at R.U.R.

ROBOTA is a new take on R.U.R., a play which was so prescient that its story has been told and re-told many times since.

Roy: “We’re trying to create a version that reckons with that - that many stories have been derived from this story. How do we imagine a new story for the world when all the stories have already been told? What we’re doing interacts poetically with the idea of AI, which can only create from things that already exist in the world. That derivative quality has informed the concept for the design.”

Loren: “Yes, that’s really inspired the visual language we are drawing on. We started from a feel of things being collaged together, different textures and images. That’s sort of how AI works, right? I was taking the idea of something slightly fragmented, but brought back together. We aren’t talking about a world of tin-foil robots! Everything in the space will feel identifiable, and we’ll be using that familiarity to create something new.”

This approach not only chimes beautifully with AI, it’s also very handy for a production aiming at high levels of sustainability! The PassivHaus credentials of the Schwarzman Centre, combined with Loren’s imaginative approach to the set are setting us well on the way to Advanced Theatre Green Book status. (Not sure what that is? Read our explainer here).

Radical imagination

This production - while rooted in and informed by cutting-edge research from Oxford academics working in AI and robots - will centre and think about what it really means to be human. From sensory elements in the design, to the invitation to audiences to be part of conjuring up this world. 

Roy: “When we’re trying to imagine how we live with new technology, we need to take inventory of the brilliant things that human beings can do. To imagine, to dream, to create new ideas. It’s going to take radical imagination for us to consider how we might live alongside this technology.”

Ella:“What we see in ROBOTA is the humans playing at being human. Trying to teach the robots how to be human. It’s the playground of it all.”

ROBOTA will be at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford from 3rd - 18th July.

Design: Studio Doug