Event Type : Performances

The event will be held in italian.

The second event of the POLIMIFEST2026 program features a theatrical performance from the FringeMI Festival in which a clown-like AI draws the audience into its surreal, sound-filled world, carrying out commands and fulfilling desires. A comic show with dark undertones, blending physical and musical theatre with Black Mirror–like atmospheres.

ALGO-RITMO
A Brief Manual of Obedience
by Andrea De Robbio and Anselmo Luisi
with Anselmo Luisi
directed by Andrea De Robbio
set design by Leonardo Driussi
produced by Zatrocarama and La Contrada Teatro Stabile di Trieste
In collaboration with FringeMI Festival

The audience takes their seats as a warm, reassuring external voice invites them to take a deep breath and prepare for a new frontier in the future of humanity: they are about to witness the presentation of a next-generation product, the humanoid robot—artificial intelligence ALGO-RITMO. Also known as ALGO, or simply AL, the robot is a highly advanced technological creation, with a modern design and a friendly, accommodating character. It does not speak; rather, it listens without ever interrupting, carrying out the user’s commands without imposing itself. Moreover, thanks to its premium mode, ALGO-RITMO can connect to a technological device that allows it to execute commands while transporting the user and the audience into sonic and musical worlds—comic and surreal.

“Will we ever be as perfect as you?” asks the presenter’s seductive voice between one command and the next.

But as Algo continues to execute relentless orders and the pursuit of perfection becomes increasingly obsessive, we see it slowly transform: its movements grow more human and less robotic, its mechanical smiles dissolve into hysterical laughter and broken sobs. Reality begins to blur and slip away: has the robot become human? Or are we witnessing a human striving to be as perfect as a robot?