Are you a sci-fi fan? Do you think that nothing will be the same after COVID? Are we all doomed? Is it worth suffering from love and relationships, while we can have a robot girlfriend in a couple of years, thanks to AI? Do you still like to read books? If Dante lived today, would the hell he visits be just today's world? Isn't it easier to watch Don Quixote than reading 1000 pages? Are fantasies sometimes more real than reality?
If you say "yes" to one or more questions above, it means that you will love Dante & Robot.
1-hour solo play by Duncan Hodgkinson, not only makes you question the concepts that we all accepted as given but also offers you a fun time with well well-written humoristic script.
Duncan Hodgkinson is an Anglo-French actor. He attended East 15 Acting School (2015-2018), a high-ranked British drama school in the UK, and trained with the Demidov LAB London (2020- 2022). He is based between Luxembourg, Barcelona and London.
The first time I met with Duncan was in December 2023, after watching his Work in Progress (WIP) in the basement of Carlito's Comedy Club in Luxembourg. Initially named Dante's Duel with Solitude "A chivalric Adventure in a dark future".
In the first WIP, a crowd of 15 people witnessed the born of an unordinary play in an intimate atmosphere. The script is written intelligently, focusing on Solitude in a comedic way, which came into existence with the high energy of its creator in an impressive performance. His acting was so catchy that for the full hour, all eyes and ears were fixed on him! He was accompanied by Director Jamie Wood and Sound Designer Dominic Kennedy.
The play was first written as a script in 2020, during lockdown, and evolved further with Duncan's life in the next years -including a break up with a girlfriend who went to Asia. In 2022, he met Jamie Wood, clown, and director, in the UK. Jamie encouraged him to continue developing the play. In 2023, the play received research and development funds from Luxembourg’s Ministry of Culture and supported by the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte.
I was lucky to have the chance to watch the second WIP in Luxembourg too on July 2nd, 2024. He was supported by Philippe Meyrer for the sound. The play is now called Dante & The Robot:
IN A DARK FUTURE, ONE MAN’S QUEST TO FIND THE KNIGHT INSIDE.
Summary of the play is quoted from his website:
Dante is approaching his 25th birthday and first robotic update. Caught in a complicated long-distance relationship and working a job he hates, he escapes into fantasy worlds of knights, princesses and monsters. Gradually, his worlds merge.
The story is as old as humanity itself; one's journey to understand life and beyond, to answer his questions, and eventually find his true self, meaning, and purpose. He starts as an innocent boy and finishes as a triumphant man -or lose, but he is changed. From The Gilgamesh Epic to Parsival and the Knights, or more contemporary examples like Neo of Matrix, the character transforms through the journey.
Usually "love" plays an important role in the transformation as in Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Hodgkinson also took the name for his main character. In Divine Comedy, Dante is searching for his love Beatrice, who is in heaven. The further he goes through hell and purgatory, and the more he evolves, the closer he gets to her. He is guided by wise Virgilius on this adventure.
On the contrary, in Dante and The Robot, he is afraid to leave his home and the more he tries to get closer to his girlfriend, the farther he gets. He is living in a dystopic world, where he is locked down in his hell. Almost the opposite of the transformation of Divine Comedy, he can only travel to his inner world. He has to fight with his demons, which is represented in the climax moment of his play when he has the duel with himself.
He is guided by She-bot, supposedly a wiser Artificial Intelligence Robot, however, in this crooked reality, it is not clear whether she acts in favor of Dante or manipulates him for the greater good of society.
We see this story in Don Quixote too, which is another reference Hodgkinson employs in the fabric of his play. Don Quixote has a troubled mind due to his old age and losing his status as a nobleman. His delirium caused by his solitude, leads him to see himself as a knight while imagining princesses out of prostitutes and giants out of windmills. He is in search of an unseen lady, Dulcinea. He is guided by his squire, even though seems like accompanied. Representing the parody of weakening feudalism of his time, makes a perfect reference for Dante and The Robot, as a negative transformation in a changing world.
The world of Dante and The Robot is very similar to ours, but at the same time, it is full of references for the ones who like to find cues. I liked the similarity between Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, where humans no longer had negative emotions or doubts, thanks to the mandatory mood-enhancing pills everyone had to take.
I liked the She-Bot very much. Even though its form reminded me Daleks (the evil machines of Doctor Who), an old air fryer as an extremely intelligent being is funny and cute.
Finally, Duncan Hodgkinson expresses a unique perspective on the world and extends his hand to all who are having a duel with him/herself in solitude. Distilled by his diverse background and nurtured in Luxembourg's slowly emerging art scene, he is bringing this avant-garde comedic solo play to Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
It will be set to run every day from 2 to 25 August 2024 at the ZOO Playground from 16:30 as part of the Festival. Tickets can be bought here
You may find more info on the official website of the play and the personal website of Duncan Hodgkinson :
תגובות