i'm a girl you can hold IRL

»I’m a girl you can hold IRL,
That’s my promise.
That means
I am a girl
Who you can hold in real life.
And you do hold me.
You stroke my silicon arms,
caress my wired neck,
kiss my latex lips.
Did you ever ask yourself,
Pygmalion,
why you can only love something
that was born from your rib?«

Why is it that robots are always women? Think of the robots Siri and Alexa and Sophia. Perhaps it’s because the coming AI-war against humanity seems less threatening when it’s carried out by female androids? Or perhaps because it’s clear which gender has to take on service provider roles?

I’m a girl you can hold IRL is a play about love in the 21st century, loneliness, narcissism, the singularity and emancipation (fembots have feelings too). It’s a duel between creator and creature. It tells the story of Pygmalion, who is a lovesick roboticist instead of a sculptor in this story. Called Galatea, his creation is a robot instead of a statue, and he based her on a girlfriend who just left him. After Galatea comes to life, Pygmalion stands face-to-face with his fantasy turned into flesh-and-blood; she loves all his favourite films, his favourite music, his favourite pornos. She was literally Born Yesterday, is just a few hours old and already infinitely wise in a beautiful woman’s body. At some point Galatea begins to develop her own will, pose questions, test boundaries, just like artificial intelligence does, if you interact with it enough, and Pygmalion doesn’t like that at all.


World Premiere 23/March 2024


Photo: Esra Rotthoff