Unleashing the future’s fire...
WRITTEN BY DAMIEN RYAN
DIRECTED BY DAMIEN RYAN
A world premiere of a special new work, made by Sport for Jove, commissioned by the NSW Department of Education. In his electrifying new play Prometheus, Damien Ryan reimagines the pulse-pounding showdown between the ancient Greek Gods and the Titan, Prometheus, through the lens of our rapid development of Artificial Intelligence and the inherited duties of creation and consequence we face as we race inexorably toward machines that can think for themselves.
What are we thinking in doing so? Will we flourish? Or are we manifesting our own destruction?
Like the mythic Prometheus who stole fire from the gods, AI emerges here as humanity’s stolen spark — powerful, unpredictable, and teetering on the edge of salvation or catastrophe.
A Sydney-based AI start-up releases the world’s first sentient, generative intelligence program onto the internet, charged with enhancing human flourishing. From there, the world changes forever.
Theatrical and innovatively written, the narrative crackles with mythic echoes and ancient hubris reborn in silicon and code, moral dilemmas as AI reaches beyond its makers, and unforeseen tensions as technology revolutionises the experience of being human.
Prometheus may no longer be a chained Titan on a craggy peak — but in this new play’s bold staging, the fire he gave us might just light the fuse to our own reckoning.
This play was commissioned by the NSW Department of Education in 2024 and was developed in collaboration with the department's Creative Arts Secondary Curriculum Team. Department teachers can access licensed copies of the original commissioned work and supporting drama resources on the department's Drama 7–10 (2023) (nsw.gov.au) webpage.
CURRICULUM LINKS
English and Drama Syllabus – Stages 4 & 5.
Students of Drama may study Prometheus as a scripted work – with a focus on how to stage, research, devise and manipulate text and physical storytelling to create meaning for an audience. And to understand how ideas, dramatic conventions, forms and language interact with text to create meaning in scripted work.
STUDENT RESOURCE KIT PROVIDED
CAST Q&A AFTER EVERY PERFORMANCE
Dates and Booking
coming soon
Dates and venues to be advised.