GIRL IN THE MACHINE Will Open at Cork Arts Theatre
Isolde Fenton and Stefan Brennan-Healy star in Éadaoin Fox's production exploring humanity's relationship with artificial intelligence.
Girl in the Machine will come to Cork Art's Theatre from Thursday November 12th - Saturday November 21st.
Polly and Owen, a couple in their thirties, have life sorted. But when Owen presents overworked corporate lawyer Polly with a newly released headset, Black Box, to help her relax, Polly slides into a potently seductive, potentially deadly, virtual world. While Polly grapples with her addiction to Black Box, outside civil protests grow as the population rebels against the new technology and its increasing hold on human life.
As the future of man and machine become intertwined, Polly and Owen are forced to confront what it means to be human and to question whether they share the same understanding of reality and freedom. Thought provoking and chilling, Girl in the Machine presents the potential pitfalls of careering headlong into a digitally enhanced future and it chimes with our contemporary unease at the march of technology.
Director Eadaoin Fox says, "This prescient text acts as a conduit of resistance when confronted with the promise of a convenient and 'blissful' reality offered by AI. I look forward to exploring the psychology of the play's characters in detail, as their relationship to an artificial intelligence feels especially familiar today.”
Starring Isolde Fenton as Polly and Stefan Brennan-Healy as Owen, Girl in the Machine is the third and final of Cork Arts Theatre's (CAT) Re:Directing programme 2026, a series of contemporary plays platforming Cork theatre directors funded by The Arts Council. Directed by Eadaoin Fox, the production opens at CAT on Thursday, November 12th and runs until Saturday, November 21st, with performances nightly at 8pm and Saturday matinees on 14th and 21st November (no performance on Sunday).
CEO of CAT, Fin Flynn says, "We are excited to be staging the third and final of the 2026 Re:Directing programme, Girl in the Machine directed by Eadaoin Fox, at Cork Arts Theatre next month. The aim was to create high-calibre productions in Cork working with many of the talented theatre artists in the city, while at the same time giving audiences a chance to see less familiar works, and we are very grateful for the Arts Council grant which enabled us to achieve this."
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