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It’s 2042 and Australia is more automated than ever before. Janelle, a woman of Cantonese heritage, and her partner Harry, a First Nations man, move back into Janelle’s family home after the death of her mother. After meeting the quirky AI controlling their home and a robotic therapy dog, Janelle and Harry are quickly swept into a world of augmentations, restrictions and chaos. Does their new hi-tech life help them connect to culture and each other, or does it hinder it?
A collaboration between Hong Kong-born multidisciplinary artist Roshelle Yee Pui Fong and Luritja writer and technologist Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan, The Robot Dog promises to be a relatable, imaginative and highly theatrical production full of humour and humanity.
Roshelle Yee Pui Fong (she/her) is a Hong Kong born multidisciplinary artist. Her writing credits include Fringe award-winning nomnomnom, adapted in East Iceland, Shanghai and Sydney; Thirsty! (Griffin Theatre/Google Creative Lab); Poona (Next Wave), co-created with Keziah Warner and nominated for a Green Room Award; 红铅 The Red Lead (now 秀女 The Elegant Women), which won the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize International Award 2022, and has since been developed at numerous places including Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. In 2022, she was an artist in Creative Australia’s Digital Fellowship program, Assistant Director on Melbourne Theatre Company’s Laurinda and a writer for Cybec Scenes, while completing her Masters of Theatre (Writing) at Victorian College of the Arts and on Melbourne Theatre Company’s Artistic Associate panel (2022-24). Roshelle has also been developing new work in Australian Plays Transform’s Mid-Career Playwrights’ group and is an advisor for Contemporary Asian Australian Performance’s (CAAP) Artist Reference Group.
Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan is a Pintupi-Luritja creative-technologist, ANU PhD student at the school of Cybernetics, and a writer from central Australia. He is a champion of sharing Indigenous voices through technology and has worked extensively to share and conserve the knowledge of Indigenous peoples. Through his previous role as lead developer at Indigital, Australia’s first Indigenous tech education company, Matthew helped to make the digital landscape more accessible to and inclusive of Indigenous young people. Matthew also worked on the development of Indigemoji and kaytetemoji, Australia’s first brand of Indigenous emojis designed by young Indigenous children and guided by Elders on Country. Matthew has written for Indigenous X, The Guardian and Red Room Poetry.
