Kundura Stage presents ‘Uncanny Valley’

The online program of Kundura Stage, the performance and theater stage of Beykoz Kundura, presents "Uncanny Valley," an android's one-man performance.

"Uncanny Valley" is performed by Swiss director and artist Stefan Kaegi, who is known for his extraordinary projects. Kaegi, whose plays produced under the umbrella of Rimini Protokoll, one of the most significant theater groups of Europe, using non-professional performers from different fields such as Formula 1 racers, pet owners, politicians have sparked debates and received awards, involves a humanoid robot that got tremendous attention when staged in 2018 and that takes use of artificial intelligence on stage to a new level.

The play, in which we watch a humanoid alone on stage reproduced by taking the work of German writer Thomas Melle as reference, tells the literature journey of the author as well as his manic-depressive episodes starting from his childhood.

Starting off with the "Uncanny Valley" concept, first used by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in the 1970s that defines the uncanny and existential uncertainty people experience when faced with humanoids, the play offers a besetting yet intriguing viewing experience in such an uncanny space where questions of "what is a human" and "what is a machine" intertwine.

The play, streamed on kultur.beykozkundura.com, will be available online and free of charge with Turkish subtitles until Feb. 15.

The cooperation of Kundura Stage with Kaegi and Rimini Protokoll will continue, too. "Remote İstanbul," the Istanbul adaptation of "Remote X" series of Kaegi, designed specifically for developing cities from Moscow to Taipei will be shown in the summer.

The play will invite us to question the connection we make with the city...