Imagine the year is 2042, you step into your childhood home for the first time in years, only to find the remnants of what’s been left behind by your dead mother – a life of this-and-thats packed up into red-white-blue bags, an altar of everyday offerings gone mouldy, and a therapy robot dog that seems to have established itself as your mother’s closest confidant during your absence.
Instead of the loving, yet annoying, nudges to sort your life out from parents that still treat you like a child, the soft, passive aggressive voice of the AI-powered smart house leaves only sentiments of the latter.
In The Robot Dog, Janelle (Kristie Nguy) is a woman who finds herself unable to make sense of grief and battles with a frustrating disconnection from her Cantonese heritage. Her partner, Harry (Ari Maza Long), a First Nations man, finds himself in a similar position. Although handy tech-gadgets can easily solve language barriers in 2042, cultural authenticity is not so straightforwardly obtained.
Meanwhile, on a secured channel away from the humans, AI devices are fighting their own battles, with the smart house (pronounced ‘hoose’ in the show) and robot dog (named ‘Dog’) clashing against different ideologies. While one emphasises individual productivity for the greater good of society while sounding like an evil spokesperson of late capitalism, Dog advocates for care, compassion and royalty for its human family.
The Robot Dog is a multifaceted looking glass that highlights some of the most topical concerns of our time, zooming in on racism, heritage, familial connections, social injustice, productivity and technology. Balancing humour and criticality, it targets the sore points of the present, projected into a futuristic world 17 years ahead, revealing that not as much has changed as we’d hope.
The exploration into how human cultural traditions can be passed down and conserved through digital means is an interesting one, where kinship extends to robotics and ritual will never be forgotten. But to what extend will they remain authentic and relevant, if rituals are never allowed to evolve?
Read: Performance review: Sim Chi Yin, One Day We’ll Understand, Footscray Community Arts, Asia TOPA
At times, The Robot Dog can feel quite dense with its attempt to capture everything that is wrong with our world and the potential for it to drive one into insanity. And yet, the story ends on a hopeful note and even makes space for robotic companions to be part of that optimism.
If any robots watching want advice on how to gain human trust, the answer lies beyond that daily dose of motivational quotes.
The Robot Dog, by Roshelle Yee Pui Fong and Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan
Director: Amy Sole
Set and Costume Designer: Nathan Burmeister
Lighting Designer: Brockman
Composer and Sound Designer: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
Cultural Design Consultant: Kat Chan
Luritja-Pintupi Language Consultant: Lavinia Napaltjarri Heffernan
Cantonese Language Consultant: Samantha Kwan
Movement Consultant: Lyndall Grant
Cast: Jing-Xuan Chan, Ari Maza Long, Kristie Nguy
Tickets $30-60
The Robot Dog is being performed at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler from 1-19 March
