Directed by: Magdalena Szpecht
Written by: Łukasz Wojtysko
Stage Design: Zuzanna Golińska
How can robots be civilized if there is no such thing as a guide to becoming a human being?
On the contrary, there is a thing like that and it is called literature, claim artificial intelligence experts. Computer systems have to read a lot and in this way they will learn to distinguish good from evil. And since it is said that Shakespeare created a modern man and catalogued the world of human emotions (just like Bach catalogued notes in music), let them read Shakespeare, our best literature.
British scientists decide to test this idea in practice. An android with a classic name Homer16 gets to rad Shakespeare’s "Hamlet." His impressions after reading the play are as follows: the story of an undecided prince and his crazy girlfriend, which teaches us that enemies must be defeated quickly and mercilessly, otherwise they will defeat us.
Homer16 totally misunderstood the strange line "to be or not to be?". What is the meaning of this question?, he asked.
The creators of the performance decided to repeat this test but with the use of puppet theatre tools. The puppet theatre is a space that makes it possible to talk about heroes in a manner less subordinated to traditional psychology. So what will the Shakespearean world look like when you filter it through the imagination of AI? Who will the characters of "Hamlet" prove to be if you do not know who man is? And finally, what is the modern answer to the first line of the tragedy: "Who’s there?"
Łukasz Wojtysko, playwright