ROBOTA Cast and Creative Team Unveiled for Oxford Schwarzman Centre Premiere

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Headlong's production features direction by Tinuke Craig and a script by Sonali Bhattacharyya.

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For the first time since announcing a new base in Oxford, Headlong will premiere their first new production in the city this July. ROBOTA will be the first full scale production to be staged at the newly opened theatre at the University of Oxford's brand-new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, playing from 3 - 18 July 2026.

Announced today, the cast includes Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Alex Rider for Prime TV; Been So Long for Netflix) as Helen, Umi Myers (Dracula - Lyric Hammersmith, Dope Girls - BBC) as Robot Helen, Tiffany Gray (The Purists - Kiln, Between Riverside and Crazy - Hampstead Theatre) as Sulla, Ian Drysdale (The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - Chichester Festival Theatre; The Crucible - Sheffield Theatres) as Busman, Trevor Fox (The Pitman Painters - National Theatre, West End and Broadway; Billy Elliot The Musical) as Dom and Irfan Shamji (Industry - BBC/HBO, Marriage Material - Lyric Hammersmith) as Ali.

The creative team includes Writer Ella Road, Director Roy Alexander Weise , Set & Costume Designer Loren Elstein , Composers & Sound Designers Dan Balfour & Max Perryment , Lighting Designer Sally Ferguson , Movement Director Sarita Piotrowski , Fight Director Haruka Kuroda , Associate Director Tramaine Trace, Costume Supervisor Sophea Liles Bailey, Props Supervisor Anna Snow and Casting Director Becky Paris CDG.

Writer, Ella Road said: “It's super exciting to see this brilliant team of actors and creatives come together and see the play expand in everyone's hands, minds, and bodies. Roy and I have been circling around each other for a while and it's great to be finally collaborating - and on such a fast paced and playful process such as this. ROBOTA is both *about* creative experimentation, and *is* a creative experiment in its own right; lately Loren, Roy and myself have been moonlighting as scientists, psychologists, philosophers… Now we have the most fantastic company to bring us down to earth and I can't wait to see how it all lands.”

Director, Roy Alexander Weise added: “I am beyond thrilled to work with this cast of titan storytellers; most of whom I've wanted to work with for the longest while. It's also a real treat to add that Ronkẹ and I haven't worked together for 10 years since our seminal collaboration on The Mountaintop ( Young Vic ). To be back in the room with one of my favourite collaborators and humans is a huge blessing. Excited for what we will all make together. ”

In 1920, playwright Karel Čapek imagined a world of A.I. and rebellion, inspiring and influencing a century of sci-fi cinema. 100 years later, Headlong reawakens his visionary play R.U.R. as ROBOTA – high-voltage theatre for the age of artificial intelligence.

In a not-too-distant future the Rossum Corporation has done the impossible: created machines indistinguishable from humans. Built to serve, programmed to obey and ready to be rolled out worldwide.

But when idealistic activist Helen gets involved, these perfect workers begin to dream of freedom and the system starts to glitch. As the line between human and machine blurs, how do we hold on to our humanity?

Blending origin story with sci-fi, myth with machine, this is a smart, timely and often funny look at what it means to truly be alive.

ROBOTA has been created in a fast-moving, fluid process in order to respond to the urgent and ever-changing question of how we live with AI. The creative team's work has been informed by ongoing conversations with cutting-edge academics at the University of Oxford.

Dr Rajendra Chitnis, Associate Professor of Czech and Slovak, who has been working closely with the creative team notes:

“Over a hundred years ago, Karel Čapek asked in R.U.R. which aspects of our humanity we should be happy to surrender to machines, giving the world the word "robot". Revisiting his questions about what work, love, equality and human life mean when we share the planet with artificial intelligence that we invented but no longer control has never seemed more urgent.”

Combining creative endeavour and academic rigour, it will be a lively and hugely timely response to one of the most trenchant debates gripping the public consciousness.

Connecting to their roots in Oxford where the company first began as the Oxford Stage Company in 1974, Headlong created a new base in the city in late 2024, as part of the Arts Council's National Portfolio transfer programme. Continuing their mission to create exhilarating theatre firmly rooted in the important questions of our time, the company will evolve and shape a new future in the city with two three-year strategic partnerships with the University of Oxford's Stephen A.Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and their Associate Partner's Oxford Playhouse.

Headlong continues to develop their Future Making strand of work with the University of Oxford's Stephen A.Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, a state-of-the-art academic research, exhibition and performance space which looks to demonstrate the essential role of the humanities in helping confront and answer fundamental questions of the 21st century. Through this new partnership, Headlong will provide a space for artists and collaborators to think and innovate as they continue to explore the intersection between drama, cutting edge research and technological advancements, and reimagine what the future of touring theatre might look like.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/Cast-and-Creatives-Set-For-ROBOTA-at-Oxfords-Schwarzman-Centre-20260528)._