Eddie Perfect reimagines Tartuffe as an AI hairdressing robot
Playwright Eddie Perfect adapts Molière's 17th-century satire with an AI hairdresser character, exploring his fears about technology replacing human thought.
Eddie Perfect has strict rules at home: no one talks to AI chatbots. Perfect worries the technology outsources thinking, harming young people.
Now he's channelling that concern into art. Perfect is adapting Molière's Tartuffe for Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre, reimagining the scheming title character as an artificial intelligence robot hairdresser.
"I really hate it because I think it's coming for everything," Perfect says of AI. But he loves sci-fi, and the adaptation lets him explore machines and our relationship with them.
Malthouse's 2027 season will feature eight plays, seven making their world premiere, all by Australian writers. New artistic director Dean Bryant wants to give audiences experiences they haven't seen staged before.
"New work is the hardest work to make," Bryant says, "but when it comes off, there's nothing like a new play."
- Eddie Perfect
- Playwright
- Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne
- Theatre
- 2027
- Season year
- 7 of 8 plays
- World premieres
Why it mattersAs Australia's government considers weakening copyright protections to attract AI companies, local artists are fighting back. Perfect's adaptation puts those creative concerns centre stage in a major theatre season.
AustraliaMalthouse Theatre's all-Australian 2027 season, opening with Perfect's Tartuffe, gives local audiences new Australian stories and challenges to the growing role of AI in creative industries.
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