The Sex Robot

Hopefully, as we go along and with fingers crossed that I'll still be talking to them all - having been living in a small, tiny (one bathroom), one size fits all (eight, sometimes nine and occasionally 10 people) hell - bring your friends - lounge - I'm hoping to do a little profile on all the wonderful people involved in this project and to kick things off, I thought I'd start with the title character herself.

It's really difficult describing what 'Involution' is about because you give it the usual....mmm, hmm, hard hitting yet funny drama, hmm...mmm...really dramatic and real and funny....hmm...um...like...it's about all really real like real life issues that affect everyone and yeah...real drama and great story and...and yeah....oh yeah....it's got a sex robot in it.

Now, I don't know what images are conjured up in your mind if someone tells you that you're doing a play at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and it's got a sex robot in it.

Maybe, a physical theatre retelling of Macbeth set against the IT revolution of the 1960s...err...A dark, yet satirical view of John Lesley's front room set to the music of The Bee Gees. Or no, maybe a postmodern look at the love affair between Hitler and Pinocchio. Do Dictators really do dolls?

So getting around this one is often tricky whilst maintaining the artistic integrity of the piece of theatre that is 'Involution'. Why is she important to the piece?

Imagine that nervous silence where you wished you had made the first move, or that cutting remark that you never quite got the nerve to respond to. Our robot girl - Gemma (played by Sam Hopkins), doesn't know the meaning of tact. She is a child - responding openly and truthfully to situations that occur. She is the purest form of human there can be - not tempered by self-consciousness or insecurity but saying it as she sees it. A wonderful expression of humanity in a fucked up world where people would prefer to bury truth before revealing it - even if in doing that, they saved the life of the one dearest to them. Yes, she's a robot, but does she see things that we don't? Does she respond to us like no-one else?

But in all seriousness, giving all artistic consideration, she is funny and hot. And not in that order. Plus she doesn't wear much.