Description
Machine-Hamlet: To be, or not to be is a short film that casts a robot called Baxter as Hamlet. My paper articulates some of the performance challenges and effects arising from a film that explicitly puts pressure on traditional humanist ‘concept[s] of the human’ (Braidotti), both generally and as these underpin theatrical processes and structures.The film Machine-Hamlet is metatheatrically framed and locates itself in posthuman terrain: it presents Baxter the robot side by side with human performers being directed in rehearsals for Shakespeare’s play. By virtue of this framing, the film implies an essential correspondence between robot and human – both robot and human are physical, ‘programmable’ performers of dramatic characters.
My research inquires into the theatrical functions of stage robots, but in exploring the performing robot’s location in dramatic plays, I also seek to interrogate the humanist assumptions underpinning dramatic theatre as I contemplate such questions as: what happens when Baxter, a mere mechanical puppet, is positioned as a performer of Hamlet who is the archetype of (humanist) dramatic character? And what does such casting reveal about dramatic and theatrical processes?
| Period | 6 Sept 2016 |
|---|---|
| Event title | TaPRA Annual Conference: Performance, Science and Humans: Performance and Science working group |
| Event type | Conference |