Two Japanese one-act plays will be performed at the Andy Warhol Museum (map) on March 8 and 9. The Seinendan Theater Company + Osaka University Robot Theater Project, sponsored by the Japan Foundation and Japan Society, present "I, Worker" and "Sayonara", which star two robots and "an incredibly human-like android who consoles the human actor dealing with a fatal illness", respectively. An introduction from the Japan Society website:
Imagine a time when "robot maids" are commonly found in family households. That's the much-anticipated setting of these two heartrending short plays by Oriza Hirata, founder of Japan's celebrated Seinendan Theater Company. In Sayonara (android and human actors), an android is bought to console a girl suffering from a fatal illness, but when its mechanics go awry, the meaning of life and death to humans and robots comes into question. In I, Worker (robots and human actors), a husband's struggle to cope with the loss of his child is juxtaposed with the malaise of one of his robots, which has lost all motivation to work. This double bill was developed in collaboration with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, a leading international researcher on robotics and Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University. Sayonara will be performed in English and Japanese with English subtitles. I, Worker will be performed in Japanese with English subtitles.The Verge has a review from last week's New York shows.
The performances are at 8:00 pm on both days, and tickets are available at the Warhol Museum website.