RUR 2020 (2018)

Performed at BioFab3D @ Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery; presented by National Science Week

August 9-19

In the near future, a young scientist responsible for a world-changing medical breakthrough uncovers a corporate conspiracy that could spell the end of one species – and the rise of another. A reimagination of Karel Capek’s classic sci-fi thriller, performed in a real-life laboratory.

“I have seen a new generation of man being stitched together like so many patchwork quilts in an unending line. They will make Einsteins for pennies and dimes; Napoleons by the bundle; and new creatures that have no parallel on the Earth.”

Almost a century has passed since Czech playwright Karel Capek wrote Rossum’s Universal Robots, a provocative sci-fi satire depicting the creation and inevitable rebellion of a race of artificial humans – the first ‘robots’.

Today we are surrounded by real life robots, and fears of human redundancy abound. Meanwhile, in our hospitals and in our bodies, incredible new technologies promise miracle cures that blur the boundary between the natural and the artificial.

Hosted live in the labs of BioFab3D, one of Australia’s top medical research facilities, RUR 2020 reimagines Capek’s controversial classic for the new century.

The first robots will be flesh and blood.

Produced by BioFab3D and PlayReactive

Written by: Rohan Byrne

Director: Georgia Symons

Cast: Yvette Turner, Josiah Lulham, Benjamin Sheen, Sarah Fitzgerald, Louise O'Dwyer, John Marc Desengano

Producer: Alexandre Guerin

Production Manager: Kirsty McGuire

Sound Design: Jess Keeffe

Video Design: Benjamin Sheen

Lighting Design: Kris Chainey