OBSERVER: Robot Dog


Directed by Amy Sole, The Robot Dog on the surface is an engaging, sweet comedy.
Set in Australia in the future world of 2042, the gentle nature of the comedy belies its coverage of multilayered social commentary.
Following the death of her mother, Janelle (Kristie Nguy), a woman of Cantonese heritage, together with her First Nations partner Harry (Ari Maza Long), returns home.
Grief coupled with all the memories home conjures up throws Janelle and Harry into a reckoning on their places in the world.
The future is automation, and AI is inescapable and omnipresent.
Janelle and Harry are subjected to daily full body scans that highlight internal bodily functions in gleeful detail by the all-pervasive AI house app, Hus.
In addition, the sinister Hus, an app that seems to be the property of Services Australia where the future of mutual obligation is assured, lists Janelle’s unsuccessful job-seeking and suggests “job acquisition enhancements” ad nauseum.
Innovations such as language apps that plug directly into your body mean a loss of real connection to family and culture.
More like 2001’s HAL than Siri.
The house comes with a robot therapy dog that appears to be undergoing an existential crisis.
“I won’t let you down,” Robot Dog tells Janelle before pushing back on Hus’s instructions that “the greater good is served by taxpayers” and that Janelle needs to get over their grief and get a job.
Co-created by Hong Kong-born multidisciplinary artist Roshelle Yee Pui Fong and Luritja writer and technologist Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan, The Robot Dog combines humour with sharp observations of what the future might look like and what we might lose.
Nguy and Long excel at bringing warmth and pathos as well as comic timing to this little gem of a play, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Performance Details: Until March 21
Venue: Southbank Theatre, The Lawler.
Bookings: mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2025/the-robot-dog/

Kathryn Keeble

Pictured: Kristie Nguy and Ari Maza Long in MTC’S The Robot Dog. Photo: Tiffany Garvie