What does it mean to be a human in tomorrow’s world? That is just one of the many philosophical questions posed in the very timely and whip-smart Electric Rosary, which is playing at The Royal Exchange Theatre until May 14.
Winner of the 2017 Bruntwood Prize Judge’s Award, Tim Foley’s play brings together nuns and robots at Manchester's preeminent theatre for the very first time, and can best be described as a technological-nightmare meets comedy. Inspired by Foley’s youthful trip to a monastery with his dad, where monks rode quad-bikes, the play asks us to question everything we know about faith and humanity, while also confronting the reality of a robotic future.
We start behind the crumbling walls of St Grace’s Convent, where cracks are not only showing in the building itself but the community of nuns holding it together. We soon learn that the convent’s mother has recently passed, leaving the five remaining sisters to find some semblance of order despite the world outside becoming increasingly polarised and fearful of the consequences of artificial intelligence.
