Whalebone

Can we save our stories when the robots arrive? And how can a whalebone help with it?

Welcome to the ‘Depository’, a mysterious bureau that has seen better days.
The last remaining worker continues with an important task: with the help of some strange machinery, he extracts the stories that live in old, discarded objects and safeguards their memories in a magical place where all stories are kept.

With the arrival of an obsolete A.I. that is programmed to avoid being disconnected, the show centres around questions about what makes us humans human, about the future in a world where more and more decisions are given into the hands of artificial intelligence, about the importance of stories and memories.

When the space gets under attack from a malicious virus that threatens to erase the safeguarded stories, an improbable alliance forms.

Storytelling versus data-management, human versus machine: a gripping and humorous clash between the analog and the digital.

The show is a feast of dazzling video and the computer animations, quirky contraptions, robotics, clunky inventions, delicately flying objects and a pinch of the circus. Physical reality turns virtual and back in this family show about what makes us humans humans, the stories we tell and artificial intelligence knocking at the door.

Performed by the imaginative mind of tinkerer, inventor and comedian Jens Altheimer (winner of the Adelaide Fringe Award for 'Best Production for Children' with ‘ Squaring the Wheel’ and nominated for the same award with ‘Loose Ends’ ).