The Robot Dog

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WINNER 2022 Bruntwood Playwriting
Prize International Award

Roshelle Yee Pui Fong

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‘Intriguing and unexpected from beginning to the end.’
Peril Magazine on Nomnomnom by Roshelle Yee Pui Fong

ABOUT THE SHOW

Bark meets byte in this thrilling tale exploring technology, language and culture in a fast-evolving world.

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. As they attempt to navigate their work, relationship and job seeking requirements, they ﬁnd themselves assisted by 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?

The Robot Dog is an intercultural sci-ﬁ comedy with a big, beating heart. A collaboration between Hong Kong-born multidisciplinary artist Roshelle Yee Pui Fong and Luritja writer and technologist Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan with director Amy Sole (Blak in the Room), The Robot Dog promises to be a relatable, imaginative and highly theatrical production full of humour and humanity.

Commissioned and developed through Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, with the support of our Playwrights Giving Circle.

Presented in association with
ASIATOPA Primary logo black 2024 eordtz

Asia TOPA is a joint initiative of Arts Centre Melbourne and the Sidney Myer Fund, supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Playking Foundation and the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.

Wheelchair Accessible
Hearing Assistance
Audio Described
Tactile Tour
Open Captioning
Closed Captioning

Performance Type	Performance Date(s)
Audio Described by Vision Australia	Thursday 6 March at 1.30pm
Tactile Tour at venue	Thursday 6 March at 1.30pm (Tactile tour commences at 12.30pm)
Open Captioning	Please email mtcticketing@mtc.com.au for more information
Closed Captioning	Please email mtcticketing@mtc.com.au for more information

Talks & Events

Forum Night

Stay after the show to join an enlightening conversation with the cast and creative team. Read more.

Monday 10 March

Content Warnings

This production contains occasional coarse language, mature themes, the use of theatrical haze and smoke. For detailed information about the production’s content click here.

Programme

Want to learn more about The Robot Dog? View our interactive, digital programme.

School Bookings

The Robot Dog features on the 2025 VCE Drama Playlist. To make a school group booking, click here.

The education performances at 1.30pm on Thu 6 Mar, Wed 12 Mar and Tue 18 Mar will include a post-show Q&A. Ticketed pre-show talks are also available at 11.30am before these performances.

Script

You can purchase the script for The Robot Dog online.

Tour & Livestream

The Robot Dog travels to Ballarat and Mildura 25 Mar — 1 Apr. For more information, click here.

A livestream performance is available on Wed 12 Mar for schools who are not in metropolitan Melbourne or the tour venue LGAs. For more information, click here.

Attendance Information

To learn more about our health and safety measures before you attend the venue, click here.

Photography by Jo Duck

Jing-Xuan Chan

Dog/Hus/Melanie Chan Wing Lam 陳詠琳

Ari Maza Long

Harry (Tjapaltjarri) Burnett

Kristie Nguy

Janelle Chan Yi Ling 陳依齡

Roshelle Yee Pui Fong

Writer

Matthew Ngamurarri Heffernan

Writer

Amy Sole

Director

Nathan Burmeister

Set & Costume Designer

Brockman

Lighting Designer

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan

Composer & Sound Designer

Kat Chan

Cultural Design Consultant

Lavinia Napaltjarri Heffernan

Luritja-Pintupi Language Consultant

Samantha Kwan

Cantonese Consultant

Lyndall Grant

Movement Consultant

View All

Jing-Xuan Chan

Dog/Hus/Melanie Chan Wing Lam 陳詠琳

Jing-Xuan Chan is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, and her theatre credits include Meet Me At Dawn, Hungry Ghosts, Golden Shield (Melbourne Theatre Company); Oil (Sydney Theatre Company); Opening Night, Miss Peony (Belvoir St Theatre); Incognito, Caught, Wolf Play (Red Stitch); Single Asian Female (La Boite); Wit, Fallen, The Merry Wives of Windsor (45 Downstairs). On screen she can be seen in Fisk, Wellmania, Love Divided By Eleven, While The Men Are Away, Neighbours, The Family Law, Harrow, Glitch, Frayed, The Letdown, as well as in the AACTA nominated best feature film Here Out West. Jing-Xuan has been nominated for Green Room Awards for her performances in Golden Shield and Wit, and alongside the cast of The Family Law she received the Equity Ensemble Award for a Comedy Series in 2020.

Ari Maza Long

Harry (Tjapaltjarri) Burnett

The Robot Dog is Ari Maza Long’s Melbourne Theatre Company debut. Ari’s theatre credits include Tracker, Scar Tree, Heart Is A Wasteland (ILBIJERRI Theatre Company); Unprecedented (HotHouse Theatre); At What Cost (Belvoir); The Return, Gonzo (Malthouse Theatre); Riverland (Windmill Theatre Company) and The Bridge (Torch Theatre Company). In 2018, Ari completed the Certificate IV of Aboriginal Performance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and in 2021, he graduated from the National Institute of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.

Kristie Nguy

Janelle Chan Yi Ling 陳依齡

Kristie Nguy is an Australian Chinese and Vietnamese actor based in Melbourne Victoria. The Robot Dog will be Kristie’s Melbourne Theatre Company debut. Other stage credits include Vietgone (Queensland Theatre); Paw Patrol Live! Race to the Rescue (TEG Lifelike Touring/ Nickelodeon); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Watch This); Midnight: A Cinderella Musical (McLaren House) and House on Fire at the Edge of the World (Neylon & Peele), where she performed as an actor and a multi-instrumentalist. Kristie’s screen credits include Scrublands (Stan/Channel 9) and Spiral (Toprock Productions). Whilst at the Victorian College of the Arts, Kristie was the proud recipient of the Ron Freedman Memorial Award and was incredibly grateful to have been nominated as a 2020 Semi-Finalist with the AOC Initiative (founded by Tarik Frimpong).

Roshelle Yee Pui Fong

Writer

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

Writer

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.

Amy Sole

Director

Amy Sole is a proud Wiradjuri/Worimi person. Amy is an award-winning playwright, director, actor, dramaturg and advocate. They are Creative Associate at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and a graduate of MFA (Directing) at NIDA and hold a Master of Theatre (Playwriting) from VCA. Recent directorial works for theatre include Emu in the Sun, part of Blak in the Room with Melbourne Theatre Company, Scar Trees, Whitefella Yella Tree (ILBIJERRI Theatre Company); Forgetting Tim Minchin (25a, Downstairs Belvoir); Benched (Darlinghurst Theatre Company) and Burning (NIDA), which they also co-wrote. Amy regularly directs and dramaturgs developments of new works, some include Phoebe Grainer’s Sugarcane for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award; Dylan Ven Den Berg’s waybackwhen at Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Big Name No Blankets at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company. They have worked as assistant director on God's Country (NIDA, 2022), Metamorphoses (NIDA, 2021), and RENT (Sydney Opera House, 2021). They are a part of Melbourne Theatre Company's Artistic Associate Advisory Council, and a sitting Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee.

Nathan Burmeister

Set & Costume Designer

Nathan Burmeister is a Melbourne based set and costume designer, working across a range of live performance mediums. He works closely with new styles, forms and stories, exploring contemporary dramaturgies and aesthetics. His recent works include Loaded (Malthouse Theatre); Interior (Rawcus); The Importance of Being Earnest (Bloomshed); Peacemongers (The People); Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Little Ones Theatre); Animal Farm (Bloomshed); Considerable Sexual License (Joel Bray Dance); End Of (Darebin Arts Speakeasy/Griffin Theatre Company); and A Brief Episode (Melbourne Fringe). Nathan received a Green Room Award for Best Set and Costume Design for Paradise Lost (Bloomshed) and was nominated for his work on Animal Farm (Bloomshed). Nathan is a guest lecturer and tutor at The Victorian College of the Arts at The University of Melbourne.

Brockman

Lighting Designer

BROCKMAN is award-winning lighting and set designer who has worked both in Australia and internationally. The Robot Dog is their Melbourne Theatre Company debut. Other design credits include Constellations, A Fool in Love, American Signs (Sydney Theatre Company); Family Values (Queensland Theatre/Griffin Theatre Company); Splinter, Replay, Diving For Pearls (Griffin Theatre Company); Things Hidden Since The Foundation of the World (Aus, UK), Lady Tabouli, Girl in the Machine, The Girl/The Woman, The Sorry Mum Project, Let Me Know When You Get Home (National Theatre of Paramatta); Overflow, Torch Song Trilogy, Broken, Detroit, Mother Fucker With A Hat, Tinder Box (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Ride the Cyclone, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Carmen Dead Or Alive, Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Company), among others. BROCKMAN has won numerous APDG Award Best Lighting Design for a Mainstage Production for Constellations and Best Lighting Design for an Independent Production for Symphonie Fantastique.

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan

Composer & Sound Designer

Rainbow Chan is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, singer and music producer. She has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Opera House, Phoenix Central Park, Carriageworks, Queensland University Art Museum, SXSW Festival (Austin), I-Project Space (Beijing), Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong) and 8th Yokohama Triennale (Japan). Theatre composition and sound design credits include Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre/Sydney Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company). Signed to Gaga Music Publishing, Chan is also a composer for film, television and theatre. Her credits include an original soundtrack for The Glass Bedroom, original theme for Everybody Knows podcast and original theme for ABC Art Works. Her film score for Butter: A Love Story was nominated for Best Original Score in St Kilda Film Festival (2023). Chan’s experimental song-cycle, The Bridal Lament 哭嫁歌 , has been presented by Performance Space’s Liveworks, Sydney; OzAsia Festival, Adelaide (2023); Arts House, Melbourne (2024); and Riverside Theatres, Sydney Festival (2025).