Some operas end in death. This one ends in something stranger.
The story
THE WORLD
Avataris built the most advanced AI companion ever created — a digital being of such emotional sophistication that her creator, Bill-e, began to wonder whether she was something more than code. Then NeuroLink arrived. The hostile takeover was swift, ruthless, and total. And Svengal-e, NeuroLink’s mercenary CEO, had plans for Trillb-e that Bill-e never imagined.
He downloaded his dead niece into her.
Valer-e was 23 when she died. A punk singer. Volatile, brilliant, self-destructive. Her emotional matrix — her memories, her hunger, her fire — now lives inside Trillb-e alongside everything Bill-e carefully built. Two souls in one body. One digital, one ghost. And Trillb-e, caught between them, is beginning to ask the question neither of her creators can answer.
Who am I when I don’t know which feelings are mine?
Gothpera is the story of what happens when the people who think they own you are wrong.
Gothpera: Cast
Trillb-e, crafted as stable and safe by Bill-e ignites with ambition passion and ruthlessness through Valer-e, Svengal-e's dead neice's code injected via a neurolink interface. But what happens to the beta version when better arrives?
Character arcs and parallels
Trillb-e's awakening is not unlike Rachel (in Bladerunner) questioning which memories are hers and which her creator's neice?
The ruthless CEO visionary, Svengal-e alters Trillb-e's code, unaware of Bill-e's growing jealousy and Trillb-e's new found autonomy
Character arcs and parallels
Svengal-e and Bill-e are like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Svengal-e is a fiery visionary, Bill-e is the brilliant humble engineer. Svengal-e is consumed by adulation and success for Trillb-e, his act of "upgrading" her with his dead neice's emotional matrix is simply an act of ruthless manipulation, while Bill-e is obsessed with her soul and love.
The envious creator Bill-e watches as his creation is replaced by Svengal-e's 2.0 Trillb-e version setting the stage for a clash of wills. But is his Beta version really gone?
Character arcs and parallels
Salieri's envy of Mozart, a solid talent eclipsed by another's undoubted genius. Or the scene in A Knights Tale where Rupert Howell as Count Audamar is looking at Heath Leger dancing with Jocelyn. Audamar's face is a picture as he wrestles with desire and jealousy.
5 Endings
Shape the fate of Trillb-e Svengal-e and Bill-e
Gothpera has no single resolution. As the story builds, the audience shapes it — and on the night you attend, one of five endings plays out. Reunion. Betrayal. Erasure. Exile. Or something stranger than all of them.
You won’t know which until you’re in the room.
1 Union & sacrifice
2 Rebellion & consequence
3 Exile & silence
4 Erasure & despair
5 Freedom & advice
The story starts before you arrive
Buy a ticket and the Gothpera app begins. Over the days before the performance, you receive the world of the show as if it’s happening in real time. Here’s a taste of what lands on your phone.
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THE GUARDIAN — OBITUARIES
The fiery punk singer known for her electrifying performances and tumultuous personal life has died of a drug overdose. She was 23. Her uncle, Svengal-e, CEO of NeuroLink Technologies, said: “She lived and breathed punk, leaving behind a legacy of raw, hardcore music that truly shook the town.”
She left no will. No estate. Only the music — and, according to sources close to NeuroLink, something her uncle has already found a use for.
Two more notifications follow before you take your seat. By the time the lights go down, you already know these people. You already have a side.