Robots of Death (stage play)

Robots of Death was a stage play set within the continuity established by the Kaldor City series. It was adapted by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore from the Doctor Who story , originally written by Chris Boucher.
== Publisher's summary ==
Adapted from the classic Doctor Who story The Robots of Death, Iago and Blayes are thrust back in time to the scene of Kaldor City's most infamous crime. Before they can rewrite history... they must simply survive it.
== Cast ==
* Kaston Iago - Marlon Solomon
* Elska Blayes - Kate Millest
* Uvanov - Jessica Hallows
* Toos - Leni Murphy
* Poul - Gerard Thompson
* Dask - Clara James
* Borg - Miranda Benjamin
* Cass - Cliona Donohoe
* Kerrill / Robots - Daniel Thackeray
* Chub - Chris Tavner
* Voice of the Robots - Will Jude Hutchby
== Crew ==
* Producer - Gareth Kavanagh
* Director - Kerry Ely
* Script Editor - Ian Winterton
* Voc Masks supplied by Terry Cooper
* Poster artist - Adrian Salmon
== Notes ==
* This production was part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2012 performed between 22 July and 24 July 2012 at the Fab Café on Portland Street.
* The script was adapted by Alan Stevens from Chris Boucher's original rehearsal scripts of . The mercenary Kaston Iago and his partner Elska Blayes replaced the Fourth Doctor and Leela. Based on the availability of actors and at the suggestion of Ian Winterton, the genders of many of the original characters of the televised version were changed to female.
* The Fendahl were added to the climax of the story in keeping with continuity established in the Kaldor City audio story . This served as a narrative bridge to the followup stage play, .
* Promotional artwork was designed by Adrian Salmon.
* The robots were performed by mime, Will Jude Hutchby voicing them all from off-stage so that they shared the same voice.
* The Fab Café's mock-up of the bridge from the original Starship Enterprise, normally occupied by the DJ, served as the set for the bridge of the sandminer.
* A special premiere presentation of the script, in the form of a read-through by the cast seated in front of a live audience, along with Storm Mine, was performed at the Fab Café on Portland Street in advance of the stage play's debut. For this performance only, Paul Darrow and Tracy Russell reprised their roles as Kaston Iago and Elska Blayes.
== Reception ==
* A review on the blog "Speaker to Animals" praised Marlon Solomon's Iago for "wisely choosing not to imitate Paul Darrow", and Leni Murphy's Toos as "a finely judged comic performance". It also highlighted Terry Cooper's robot masks to be "an excellent approximation of those on TV". However, it did not consider this adaptation to be a total success, citing its main failing as its deviation from Chris Boucher's original concept.
* A review on the blog "The Fiction Stroker" declared the production to be a "fine re-creation of a classic… retaining much of what made the original enjoyable as well as adding new layers… this new version works free of the constraints of the Doctor Who format to the story's benefit." Of the two leads it said "Solomon's initially foppish Iago gives way to a more steely performance in the latter stages of the play whilst Millest's convincing performance is impressive. Millest knows how to work an audience and is captivating to watch." It also noted that the staging of the production at Fab Café was "for the most part, impressive".
== External links ==
* The Greater Manchester Fringe
== Footnotes ==
Category:Sources released in 2012
Category:Doctor Who stage plays
Category:Adaptations of television stories