Abstract: The play Pinocchia is a digital performance consisting of clips from different actors. Pinocchia has not only one but several stages and tells the story of an old man, Frank, who lost his wife and needs to deal with a care-assistant robot. The community centre provided this robot called Eva to help Frank in his daily life and to light up his day. However, Frank is not content with this “box of tricks.”

Details: Since his wife Grace passed away, Frank has been trapped in deep loneliness. Therefore, the play’s opening deals with questions about life, death, and the perception of us, the human beings. People with disabilities present the topic in short clips which were not recorded on a stage but in an environment similar to an allotment. The central part of the play, which follows the opening scenes, is situated in Frank’s house, precisely in his living room. An employee from the community centre joins Frank in his loneliness by launching a care-assist robot called Eva at the older man’s house. Although Eva should be an appealing company for Frank, he rejects the offer of the robot of telling a joke or helping him with his daily life. Frank wants “someone to sit and watch a sunset with”; he is disinclined to have so much contact with a robot that is only a “box full of tricks” and data. So, Eva is left by Frank in the corner of his living room. Contrary to Frank’s opinion that Eva is a useless device filled with data, Verity, Frank’s neighbour, sees the robot’s advantages. Eva is at least “never grumpy”; she even sees a similarity with the puppet Pinocchio in the robot. That is why Verity calls Eva “Pinocchia.” Even though Verity wants to convince Frank to take the opportunity of Eva’s presence, the older man embitters even more in his depression of missing his wife. Without him noticing, Frank suffers from a UTI, a urinary tract infection, which causes fever and hallucinations to him. For this reason, Frank hears Eva talking to him mistakenly, “I have missed you” instead of her daily question, “How can I assist you?”. On a walk to get a newspaper, Frank meets other people from his city whose behaviour seems normal. But, in Frank’s perception, the citizens are all trying to annoy him. As he strolls through his neighbourhood, Frank faints and is rescued by his robot Eva who calls the ambulance. When Frank wakes up at home, Eva is by his side, and Verity, fortunately, cares a lot about Frank. She provides him tea and pie and visits Frank’s house. After all that happened, Frank feels closer to Eva and begins to like his robot. Eva and Frank are talking about the joy of life and grasping at the chance of being a human with feelings and memories. “Today is the youngest you are ever going to be,” explains Eva to Frank, who realizes now that he should be grateful for being alive. Together with Verity, Frank returns to his pastime activity, the allotment, and is sure about enjoying life from now on. Thanks to his “box of tricks,” Frank gained back his will to make the most out of his life and move on, without forgetting his wife, Grace.