Japan has a new stage star - an android who is acting the part of a robot in a play called Sayonara.
Germinoid F was presented to the media and select audiences on Wednesday ahead of a two-day Tokyo arts festival. The play - whose title means 'goodbye' in English - is a 20-minute piece where most of the action revolves around an android caretaker of the not-so-far future reciting poetry to a human woman who is terminally ill.
Geminoid F, designed to look a quarter Russian with dark hair and brown eyes, was seated throughout the play, with most of her expressions and voice controlled by a human from behind the scenes.
"It may not be that a robot replaces human beings on stage; it's more like a new type of actor has emerged into the theatrical world," said director Oriza Hirata, who has already put together two plays featuring robots since 2008.
However, this is the first time Hirata says he has used a human-looking android, which, he insists, are not only good actors but also brilliant in boosting ticket sales.
"For me as a director, there is nothing more appreciable than robot actors ... and the audience always loves to see them acting," the director said.
Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renown robot developer of Osaka University and the creator of Geminoid F, added that the potential of android actors was unlimited.
"Android can look very similar to human actors; but more than that, we can technically create a superior actor by featuring all good techniques of human actors such as staring, moving, and talking," he said.
Ishiguro says he had created this thespian version by simplifying the usual £1m model. Only 12 motors were used to enable the machine to speak, smile and dumbfound audiences while keeping her eyes blinking and chest moving up and down as if she were actually breathing. But acting alongside a robot is, apparently, a totally different issue.
"I kind of feel like I'm alone, I think. There's a bit of distance; the robot has a quite particular position because it's got a voice but it's not some kind of human presence," said US actress Bryerly Long.
Audience members felt the casting was impeccable.
"It looked like the android was acting the part of an android," said 28-year-old Chihiro Aikawa after watching the performance.
Germinoid F was presented to the media and select audiences on Wednesday ahead of a two-day Tokyo arts festival. The play - whose title means 'goodbye' in English - is a 20-minute piece where most of the action revolves around an android caretaker of the not-so-far future reciting poetry to a human woman who is terminally ill.