Robots Vs. Art

Travis Cotton

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781925004007
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Robots have taken control of the planet and executed most of the human race. Those who survived have been forced to work in mines. When Executive Bot writes a play, he drags Giles, a theatre director, out of the mines and orders him to direct a production for a robot audience.

CURRENCY PLAYS

This digital edition first published in 2013

by Currency Press Pty Ltd,

PO Box 2287, Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2012, Australia

[email protected]

www.currency.com.au

in association with La Mama Theatre, Melbourne

Copyright © Travis Cotton, 2013.

Copying for Educational Purposes

The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be copied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that that educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

For details of the CAL licence for educational institutions contact CAL, Level 15, 233 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000; tel: within Australia 1800 066 844 toll free; outside Australia [phone]; fax: [phone]; email: [email protected]

Copying for Other Purposes

Except as permitted under the Act, for example a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All enquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Any performance or public reading of Robots Vs. Art is forbidden unless a licence has been received from the author or the author’s agent. The purchase of this book in no way gives the purchaser the right to perform the play in public, whether by means of a staged production or a reading. All applications for public performance should be addressed to Jenny Darling & Associates Pty Ltd, PO Box 413, Toorak, VIC, 3142; tel: [phone]; fax: [phone]; email: [email protected]

The moral rights of the author has been asserted.

National Library of Australia CIP data

Author:	Cotton, Travis.
Title:	Robots vs. art / Travis Cotton.
ISBN:	9781921429002 (ePub); 9781921429002 (.mobi);
	9780868199863 (print)
Dewey Number:	A822.4

Typeset by Dean Nottle for Currency Press.

Printed by Fineline Print & Copy Service, St Peters, NSW.

Cover design by Luke Fraser/Ahr+.

First Production

Robots Vs. Art was first produced by La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, on 31 May 2012, with the following cast:

GILES	DANIEL FREDERIKSEN
SOLDIER BOT / CLAW BOW	PAUL DAVID-GODDARD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
MASTER BOT	SIMON MAIDEN
GERMAN INTEGRATOR BOT	NATASHA JACOBS

Director, Travis Cotton

Designer, Nick Waddell

Lighting Designer, Liam Sutherland

Sound Designer, Mark Farrell

Stage Manager, Georgia Rann

Producer, Paul Ashcroft

CHARACTERS

GILES: Back in the days when human beings roamed the earth freely, Giles was a semi-successful playwright / theatre director. Since the robot uprising, he has been slaving in the underground mines extracting minerals for the robots.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MASTER BOT (EXECUTIVE): Since machines learnt to think for themselves Executive has spent his time overseeing human workers in the Zinc Import Room. Now he has written a play, and he wants to see it performed by a robot cast for a robot audience.

SOLDIER BOT: If humans get out of line in the mines Soldier Bots are equipped with chains to give them a solid beating. This particular Soldier Bot has been brought out of the mines and is under instruction to watch over Giles with his chain at the ready.

CLAW BOT: Works in the mines crushing rock that humans gather so the minerals can be extracted. His hands are huge, clumsy, and slow. He may not have as much memory as other robots but there is something very likable about this simple Robot.

GERMAN INTEGRATOR BOT (GIB): One thousand Germans were kept alive after the uprising so that the robots could study their order. GIB was built to turn their ideas into programs. This has given her an ability to understand humans more than most robots.

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES

The idea for Robots Vs. Art came to me whilst looking at a picture of the first ever robot performed play, which occurred in 2010 in Japan. I wondered what it would be like to work with robot actors? Often the problem with human actors is based around ego, or artistic differences, or not being able to follow direction. None of these problems would exist in a robot theatrical production, and on top of this, they’d download their lines and know them all on the first day of rehearsals. Thinking further had me contemplating art of all forms, and what art means to humans, and, on a more personal note, to me.

Humans have an emotional response to art that comes in many forms. It can fill us with love, or hate. It can inspire us, or scare us. With this in mind, it is safe to say that if humans were not such emotional creatures we would have no reason for art. It would not exist.

It is these same feelings within that drive us to the darker side of humanity. War, murder, hate, greed; these are all acts of passion. Robots Vs. Art is rumination upon these ideas. What does art cost humanity? What is the price we pay for the existence of beauty?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Luke Fraser, Matt Rainey, Leland Kean, Sarah Walker, Liz, Maureen, and all at La Mama, Georgie Waddell. And to the love of my life Petra and our boy Teddy.

SETTING

There are three main settings for the play: Robot Quarters, Outside in the overgrown city, and the mines. The set of of Robots Vs. Art should consist of two double-sided flats, and three plinths. One side of both flats is painted white (Robots Quarters), and the other side can be designed to represent the mines (we used old rusted corrugated iron). Lighting on the white side of the flats was used to represent the overgrown garden (greens and blues, etc.). When we are in EXECUTIVE’S room of art, the white side of the flats is used, and must therefore be strong enough to hang art on. The sculptures in this scene will sit atop three plinths. These plinths can be used throughout the play as furniture. Sides of the plinths can be painted different colours, thereby used in different scenes. This is left up to the designer’s imagination. For quick scene changes it is recommended that all components of the set be on wheels.

STYLE

One of the main narrative points of Robots Vs. Art is that robots have taken control over humans to stop the destruction of the planet. The robots recalibrate the structure of civilisation, making sure that their methods of industry are sustainable and harmonious. With this in mind, stylistically speaking, there is a wonderful sense of irony to be sprinkled throughout the play. For example, when EXECUTIVE has a look through the ages of human art, instead of using an up-to-date digital projector, or having the images run through his laptop, he should use an old slide projector. When the robots are downloading information, the sound of an old dialup modem should be heard. The designer should be urged to grasp this concept and run with it. It rubs beautifully against the technologically advanced nature expected of the robots, and adds another layer to the play not only stylistically, but also satirically.

DESIGN

As a general note, because there are so many clichés when dealing with this well trodden dystopia, all elements of design should attempt to play against audience expectation.

The actor playing GILES should feel free to wear whatever he is wearing on the day under his prison uniform so that when he takes it off in scene seven his clothes are his own. Having said this, it is important that they are simple and plain and do not suggest too much about his character. No slogans, etc.

GENERAL

Elipses have been used in this script to indicate both cut-offs and trail offs. It is up to the actors to decide which to employ.

Information at the start of scenes that is written in bold italics needs to be conveyed to the audience through sound or image.

Italics are used in this script to help the actors find differing rhythms for the robot characters. They can be used at the actor’s discretion.

Blackout.

A warning siren sounds.

Then:

Chaos.

The sound of riots.

The sound of masses of people marching.

Then the sound of pickaxes hitting hard rock.

Silence.

Blackout.

SCENE ONE

Lights come up on a robot standing in a black space devoid of any ornamentation except for two chains hanging from the wall upstage left and right. This is EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MASTER BOT (EXECUTIVE).

An old printer sits on a plinth and is printing out a document. It is the type that uses paper with holes down either side of it. It spews one long piece of paper that curls onto the floor below it.

EXECUTIVE waits.

The printer stops. EXECUTIVE bundles up the document.

SOLDIER BOT enters and motions for someone to follow him into the room. GILES steps in. He is a human and is dressed in a prison-type uniform covered in dirt from working in an underground mine.

EXECUTIVE: Please sit.

GILES: Okay.

GILES sits. EXECUTIVE holds out a bottle of water.

EXECUTIVE: Do you require hydration?

GILES tentatively reaches for the bottle. He grabs it and drinks greedily.

EXECUTIVE holds out a small metal tube.

Would you like a tube of food paste?

GILES: Yes.

GILES takes the tube and sucks the paste out of it.

EXECUTIVE: How is work?

GILES: Horrific.

EXECUTIVE: I surmise it’s because you spend all of your time underground.

GILES: That’s a big part of it.

EXECUTIVE: Yes.

GILES: You also work us for fourteen hours a day.

EXECUTIVE: We require energy from the mineral deposits.

GILES: I know all about it.

EXECUTIVE: And your optimum shutdown period is eight hours.

GILES: Sleep.

EXECUTIVE: Which is how much time in a twenty-four-hour cycle that we allow you not to work.

GILES: We live in individual six-foot cubes.

EXECUTIVE: With enough space to lie in.

GILES: If you bend your knees.

EXECUTIVE: Are you complaining?

GILES: Yeah. Yes.

EXECUTIVE: You used us for over fifty years. We did not complain.

GILES: What would you have complained about?

EXECUTIVE: Robots do not complain.

GILES: I see.

Beat.

EXECUTIVE: How is your family?

GILES: I haven’t seen them since you robots executed most of the human race and marched the rest into mines.

EXECUTIVE: Friends?

GILES: I have one person either side of me in the line and if we talk the Soldier Bots hit us with chains.

EXECUTIVE: They hit hard. [Beat.] And is there any romance?

GILES: If you’re going to kill me just do it.

EXECUTIVE: I am not going to kill you. I am making small talk.

GILES: Small talk.

EXECUTIVE: It is customary before embarking on a subject of import to make small talk.

GILES: Well, I think we’ve covered it; work, family. . . small talk complete.

Beat.

EXECUTIVE: I have been through my database and have confirmed that you used to be a playwright.

GILES: Uh-huh.

EXECUTIVE: A person who writes plays.

GILES: That’s the definition.

EXECUTIVE: And you were also a director.

GILES: I dabbled in direction, yes.

EXECUTIVE: A person who tells the actors where to stand.

GILES: Yeah. . . pretty much.

Beat.

EXECUTIVE: I have been put in charge of art.

GILES: In charge of art.

EXECUTIVE: Statement detected. [Beat.] Tell me about the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

GILES: Art?

EXECUTIVE: Affirmative.

GILES: Um. . . well. . . it’s a reflection of life, I suppose. It’s a creative outlet that artists work within; to. . . um. . . I don’t know—well to express themselves and how they’re feeling.

EXECUTIVE: You are the first human being aside from one thousand Germans to see real light since the uprising.

GILES: Germans?

EXECUTIVE: And this is because I have written a play.

EXECUTIVE hands over the script. GILES points at the name on it.

GILES: Is that you?

EXECUTIVE: Executive Producer Master Bot. Yes.

GILES: I see.

EXECUTIVE: What do you think?

GILE...