In his program notes, playwright Travis Cotton shares that he came up with the idea of writing ROBOTS VS ART after reading a newspaper article about a play performed in Japan that featured robots as the actors…
Yes, news like that does get the old brain box ticking over…With the way technology is expanding and consuming us, which way is human civilisation heading, let alone the world of the performing arts?!
Cotton has chosen to tackle this subject/ contemporary dilemma in a highly whimsical, comical way. In Cotton’s world the robots have taken over and running things pretty efficiently- thank you very much. There’s the odd human being left- but they work deep under the earth in coal mines. Chief robot- named Exec Bot- is determined that he can come up with a working formula for Art. For him to come up with this formula, he realises that he has to understand Art and feel what it is trying to say. It is in this guise that Exec Bot grabs Giles, one of the few human beings left, out of the mines and has a one to one meeting with him. He has heard that Giles has experience as a theatre director and gives him an ultimatum. Giles is to direct a play that he has written and if during the play he can get him to feel something then Giles will be able to live and reproduce with a robot. If Exec Bot goes through the play unmoved then Giles will be executed pronto.
It’s a bit of a rambly, convoluted scenario…Cotton, who also directs the piece, fleshes it out into a fast paced production. There’s a lot to keep the audience interested- will the Robots learn to feel?, how good are they at learning their lines- especially when Claw Bot can’t even hold onto a pencil to write down notes from his director- yes there are plenty of acting/theatre in-jokes.
The performances are in the main good. Simon Maiden is great as the fastidious Exec Bot, as is Daniel Fredriksen as the angst ridden Giles. Natasha Jacobs was a lot of fun as Fem Bot. I had problems with Paul Goddard’s performance as Claw Bot- yes, he was funny but his performance needed to be pulled back.
Also not so satisfying was the romance that the playwright put into the mix- felt a little cringy and out of place. A bit of a contest as to whether it really worked.
ROBOTS VS ART opened at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre on Wednesday 19 June and runs until July 6, 2013.