Improbotics, the world pioneers in AI improvisation comedy, are thrilled to return to Komedia with a new AI-enabled interactive show at Brighton Fringe Festival 2025. RoboTales is a futuristic Choose Your Own Adventure game, where a robot directs human improvisers, AI suggests the plot, actors shine, and audiences inspire and control the story by voting on their phones. “Like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, brought to life by AI and the actors’ imagination and improv talent” (Piotr Mirowski).
RoboTales features human actors collaborating with AI and with audiences to deliver a groundbreaking theatrical experience. The show presents an adorable humanoid robot performing alongside human actors. The bot uses speech recognition and state-of-the-art AI—with software developed by the show creators—to analyse the improv scenes and generate silly new choices and strange transitions for the audience to vote on. The AI can also create hilarious deep fakes of consenting audience members, and can control actors by sending them lines via augmented reality glasses. The show is a chaotic fusion of human creativity and machine intelligence that is “not only very funny, but thought-provoking” (Theatre & Tonic 2023 for the Edinburgh Fringe performance at Gilded Balloon). It will inspire film and theatre aficionados, role-playing gamers, LARPers, writers and all storytellers and adventurers alike.
Improbotics moves beyond the AI hype and the AI doom, the replacement of artists and the AI slop. The company creates “the only show that actually uses AI properly and makes it very creative. Mixing AI with improv is such a fantastic idea that executed so well by a wonderful cast” (Gilded Balloon staff, 2024).
About Improbotics:
Since 2016, Improbotics has been inventing new artforms and merging cutting-edge AI and VR technology with the art of improvisational theatre, captivating audiences worldwide with their unique and innovative performances. Based in Belgium, Canada, Sweden and the UK, the theatre company was co-created by renowned research scientists in AI and robotics Dr Piotr Mirowski and Dr Kory Mathewson, Fullbright Fellow and lecturer in digital media design Dr Boyd Branch and drama lecturer Sarah Davies.
“Kory and Piotr boldly and hilariously go where no one has ever gone before: actual artificial intelligence improv. I will stick with artificial stupidity.” (Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedian, Edinburgh Fringe 2017). The company’s shows featured on BBC Click, New York Times, New Scientist, Financial Times and Time. Improbotics won the Most Innovative Show Award (Paris Fringe 2020), and the ‘Ballsy Award’ (Binge Fringe 2020) and was invited to the Royal Institution (BEYOND Conference, 2023) and the AI Children Summit (Alan Turing Institute, 2025).
Event Details:
Date and Time: Saturday 3rd May at 14:30 and Sunday 4th May at 17:30
Duration: 60 minutes
Venue: Komedia, 44-47 Gardner St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1UN
Tickets can be found on Komedia and Brighton Fringe.
