In For We The Young Five Plays by Finegan Kruckemeyer
RECOMMENDED FOR: Years 4-6
CAST SIZE: 5 including a robot
A PLAY TO: Read, read aloud, study and perform, use as stimulus for making and responding
GENRE: Drama, comedy, magic realism
THEMES: Inventiveness, loss, love, family, resilience
CURRICULUM LINKS: The Arts – Drama, English, General Capabilities – Literacy, Personal and Social Learning, Ethical Understanding Critical and Creating Thinking
SYNOPSIS: In My Robot, we meet Ophelia, an inventor, who has moved away from everything she knows to a small beachy town. The memories and pieces of her previous life remain firmly in her head— the small red house, thick carpet, tall pointed mountains, the right-sized best friend. She is clear about the things she doesn’t like about her ‘now’ place—stinky zinc, wrong thongs, smouldering footpaths, and diving gulls. When a mysterious box full of gadgets, and a strange note that reads ‘You. Make. Me.’ arrives in her bedroom one night, Ophelia embarks on an invention that will have some very interesting outcomes!
STAGING: There are multiple locations in this play which means it could be staged in a single space using simple props and set items. There are suggestions in the script – cardboard boxes, a beach ball, an open window, a bed, a typewriter (!). The playwright states, ‘This is a story told. This may be by one, by some or by many’.