Prometheus

The world premiere of a special new work, made by Sport for Jove, commissioned by the NSW Department of Education. In his electrifying new play Prometheus, Damien Ryan reimagines the pulsepounding showdown between the ancient Greek Gods and the Titan, Prometheus, through the lens of our rapid development of Artificial Intelligence and the inherited duties of creation and consequence we face as we race inexorably toward machines that can think for themselves.

What are we thinking in doing so? Will we flourish? Or are we manifesting our own destruction?

Like the mythic Prometheus who stole fire from the gods, AI emerges here as humanity’s stolen spark — powerful, unpredictable, and teetering on the edge of salvation or catastrophe. A Sydney based AI start up releases the world’s first sentient, generative intelligence program onto the internet, charged with enhancing human flourishing. From there, the world changes forever.
Theatrical and innovatively written to allow a cast of 6 actors or entire class of 30 to work on the play, and inviting personal contributions and adaptations of the work from its cast, the narrative crackles with mythic echoes and ancient hubris reborn in silicon and code, moral dilemmas as AI reaches beyond its makers, and unforeseen tensions as technology revolutionises the experience of being human.

Prometheus may no longer be a chained Titan on a craggy peak — but in this new play’s bold staging, the fire he gave us might just light the fuse to our own reckoning.