Sanctuary

A terminally ill woman hires a digital legacy company to record video greetings for her children to watch long after she is gone.

In our technologically accelerating world, this scenario of social media legacy planning has become a reality. In the digitised future, memories can be made immortal. Our data can be turned into bots. Protests can happen from the comforts of our own homes. Humans, androids and robots are all adrift in cyberspace.

The Necessary Stage continues its 30th anniversary season with another provocative work—Sanctuary, an international collaboration with HANCHU-YUEI, one of Tokyo’s most innovative theatre companies.

It presents assorted characters—from social media influencers to virtual personal assistants—through the lens of hot-button issues of the day such as surveillance, alternative fact and post-life.

Sanctuary investigates the fragility of the human condition, at a time when technology is eroding our humanity. We are the data, but the data is never ours.