Bradford Opera Festival: The Last Machine Breaker

Four lives. Two timelines. One question: Will technology be our salvation or our downfall?

In The Last Machine Breaker, Eva creates Adam, a humanoid AI capable of thought, emotion, and desire. But as Adam takes his first breath, another world unfolds before us: 1813, projected live on stage. There, Mary pleads with George Mellor, Luddite Leader and her lover, condemned to die in the morning: turn traitor to his cause and live; stay true and die.

Composed by Ben Crick (A Northern Score, Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra), written by Kamal Kaan (Bangla Bantams, Perfume), and directed by Alex Chisolm, The Last Machine Breaker is a bold live-digital hybrid opera. It fuses past and future, reality and technology, to ask urgent questions about humanity, rebellion, and the cost of progress.