Photos: Headlong's ROBOTA in Rehearsal at Oxford
Performances will run 3 - 18 July 2026.
Headlong will premiere their first new production in the city this July. ROBOTA will be the first full scale production to be staged at the newly opened theatre at the University of Oxford’s brand-new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, playing from 3 - 18 July 2026. Check out rehearsal photos below!
In 1920, playwright Karel Čapek imagined a world of A.I. and rebellion, inspiring and influencing a century of sci-fi cinema. 100 years later, Headlong reawakens his visionary play R.U.R. as ROBOTA – high-voltage theatre for the age of artificial intelligence. Blending origin story with sci-fi, myth with machine, this is a smart, timely and often funny look at what it means to truly be alive.
ROBOTA has been created in a fast-moving, fluid process in order to respond to the urgent and ever-changing question of how we live with AI. The creative team’s work has been informed by ongoing conversations with cutting-edge academics at the University of Oxford.
Combining creative endeavour and academic rigour, it will be a lively and hugely timely response to one of the most trenchant debates gripping the public consciousness.
The cast for ROBOTA includes Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Alex Rider for Prime TV; Been So Long for Netflix) as Helen, Umi Myers (Dracula - Lyric Hammersmith, Dope Girls - BBC) as Robot Helen, Tiffany Gray (The Purists - Kiln, Between Riverside and Crazy - Hampstead Theatre) as Sulla, Ian Drysdale (The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - Chichester Festival Theatre; The Crucible - Sheffield Theatres) as Busman, Trevor Fox (The Pitman Painters - National Theatre, West End and Broadway; Billy Elliot The Musical) as Dom and Irfan Shamji (Industry - BBC/HBO, Marriage Material - Lyric Hammersmith) as Ali.
The creative team includes Writer Ella Road, Director Roy Alexander Weise, Set & Costume Designer Loren Elstein, Composers & Sound Designers Dan Balfour & Max Perryment, Lighting Designer Sally Ferguson, Movement Director Sarita Piotrowski, Fight Director Haruka Kuroda, Associate Director Tramaine Trace, Costume Supervisor Sophea Liles Bailey, Props Supervisor Anna Snow and Casting Director Becky Paris CDG,
In a not-too-distant future the Rossum Corporation has done the impossible: created machines indistinguishable from humans. Built to serve, programmed to obey and ready to be rolled out worldwide. But when idealistic activist Helen gets involved, these perfect workers begin to dream of freedom and the system starts to glitch. As the line between human and machine blurs, how do we hold on to our humanity?
Photo Credit: Helen Murray
