Kara Reilly

University of Theatre and Film Arts, University of Exeter

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About

Kara Reilly is a theatre historian and performance studies scholar whose work sits at the fascinating intersection of technology, embodiment, and theatrical representation. Her research explores how automata, robots, and mechanical figures have shaped and reflected cultural anxieties across different historical periods, positioning the artificial body as a lens through which to examine broader questions of humanity, labor, and artistic creation. Her most influential contribution, *Automata and Mimesis on the Stage of Theatre History* (2011), has garnered 48 citations and offers a sweeping examination of the automaton through theatre history, exploring themes from Iconoclasm's fears about art surpassing nature to contemporary robotics. This work established Reilly as a leading voice in the emerging field of robot theatre studies. Her companion piece on Karel Čapek's landmark play *R.U.R.* traces the very origins of the word "robot," connecting the Czech concept of servitude to enduring theatrical narratives about labor and rebellion. Her 2018 work continues this trajectory, analyzing how science-fiction theatre negotiates anthropomorphism and shifting cultural relationships with artificial beings. Together, Reilly's scholarship provides an indispensable historical and theoretical framework for understanding how societies have staged their deepest anxieties about technology and what it means to be human.