“That was magic,” says a small boy in the audience as the performers take a bow. “It really WAS magic!” he adds, in case of doubters.  

But there is no doubting Ann-Droid: The Wonderful Adventures of a Robot Girl is a magical show. With just two performers, three remote-controlled props and a large screen, Bandart Productions plunges audiences into a vibrant, madcap world of dreams, nightmares, lost love, redemption and digital gameplay. 

In essence, Ann-Droid is a reimagined Pinocchio story: a lonely inventor builds a robot child who comes to mischievous life and sets off on a journey, along the way discovering what it takes to be human. 

Bandart Productions is a partnership between two Hungarian performers, and this production showcases their respective talents. Katalin Lengyel is a dancer and choreographer. As Ann-Droid, the robot girl, she skates through rooms, runs through woods, leaps from cloud to cloud across the sky and sinks to the ocean floor – in reality without moving more than a metre or so in any direction.

Szabolcs Tóth-Zs, who plays the absent-minded inventor, is a digital media artist. For this show he has created a multifaceted, animated scenic backdrop. His inventor’s laboratory features weird and wonderful gadgets with start buttons that trigger wacky sequences of on-screen, 2D mechanical action. There are doors that open to other rooms and environments, where skeletons loom in the shadows of an undersea cavern, trees transform into a nightmarish forest of towering hands and a young girl’s bedroom is preserved just as it was the day the inventor lost his daughter.

There are risks with theatre productions this heavily reliant on new media such as digital animation. Today’s generation of children, so-called digital natives, spend enough time on digital devices at home or school for screen magic to be more ordinary, less memorable, than it was just a few years ago. Theatre magic remains deeply rooted in story, character and in-the-moment connections between theatre artist and audience.   

In Ann-Droid, the story and characters are lightly sketched, albeit with some complexity and plenty of heart. In this production, the magic of theatre stems from precise timing, movement and positioning as performers interact with imagery. Before our eyes we see a living, breathing, on-stage person open and step through a door that we know to be a 2D digital animation projected onto a solid screen. Bandart’s genius lies in the fusion of live performance and digital animation, so the actors appear to inhabit the 2D world and the animated environments seem real and tangible.

Another masterstroke is the use of remote control to give onstage objects a life of their own. From the first moment the inventor’s gadget trundler moves behind his back, the audience is delighted and captivated. When the show ends, children gather at the front edge of the stage and take turns directing a little robot ball that rolls whichever way they point. Now that really must be magic!

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There is nothing I like better than seeing a theatre full of children and young adults thoroughly engaged in a live performance. Tonight’s performance is jam packed with children on the edge of their seats waiting to see what is going to happen next and it is still completely absorbing for the adult members of the audience.

Ann-Droid is a story about a robot, built by a lonely inventor to replace his lost daughter, trying to become a human. To do this she needs to complete a series of tasks. The performance is dialogue free and the two actors use strong physicality and quirky movement to portray their characters. But the hero of the performance is the outstanding use of animation and technology to bring to life Ann’s adventures.

Ann runs through forests, frolics in the clouds and dives through the ocean, all using clever 3d animation and superb timing. Her costume is a myriad of LED lighting which, in video game style, lights up when she conquers a task. She is accompanied by a robotic ball of light which quickly becomes the star of the show, and comes across a dying drone, egg laying dodo birds, a forest of hands and a curious fish. 

This is a performance that crosses boundaries. It is accessible to young and old and has no language barriers. The Hungarian company have devised and produced a thoroughly entertaining and uplifting performance that can be enjoyed by everyone. 

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The old-time charm of the Mayfair Theatre is the setting for Ann-Droid, a show by Hungarian duo and couple Katalin Lengyel and Szabolcs Toth-Zs. With backgrounds in dance and new media design, their collaborations are destined to be theatrical and technologically enhanced. Ann-Droid is no exception.

Providing a 21st century spin on the classic story of Pinocchio, Ann is created by a crazy inventor who lost his own daughter in a tragic accident. With a backdrop of classic animation, Ann’s adventure begins when she starts to explore the inventor’s home, with cataclysmic consequences. Some of his inventions escape and Ann is sent away in despair to find them.

This charming story is disarmingly retold with assistance from an LED-encrusted dress and headgear, a small ball-shaped robot and a drone. The use of modern technology including the animated backdrop create a setting that will charm and engage any audience from age 2 to 102.

With nods to gaming, Ann levels up at each stage of her adventure, eventually culminating in her unveiling as a real child and providing the inventor a second-chance at fatherhood. The crescendo is blindingly well-executed and unforgettable.

Ann-Droid is a definite must-see – you won’t be disappointed.  

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