Ibsen Meets Robotics with Heddatron

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

I kid you not. Les Freres Corbusier takes the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler and replaces half of the actors with actual functioning robots. Of course, this is an adaptation, or as they say on Les Freres Corbusier’s official site, an irreverent massacre (click the About tab). The robots were designed by the botmatrix.

The work is inspired by “Hedda Gabler,” Ibsen’s 1890 drama about a desperately frustrated woman. (Yes, there are live actors in it, too.) But in this version, which opens at Here Arts Center on Wednesday, Strindberg and Ibsen fight over teacakes and dramaturgy while Jane, an Ypsilanti, Mich., housewife, is abducted by androids, conveyed to their rain forest lair and repeatedly forced to perform “Hedda Gabler.” Source: The New York Times (registration required)

We Say: All right, I know Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation practiced acting and got pretty good, but I might expect the robots’ performances to be somewhat … monotonic? Metallic? Robotic? You won’t need prompters for them but you might need repairmen.

On the other hand, this reminds me of some of the episodes of Futurama centering around robotic actors like Calculon. Ah, I loved that show.