Con­rad or The fac­to­ry-made boy

That was quick! The delivery man rings the doorbell, you scribble a signature and receive a package. And although you don’t remember ordering an oversized tin can, you open it up to find inside – a child?!

Never did Berti Bartolotti imagine that a misdelivered package would turn her into a mother! The Himmelblau company, experts in mass-producing model children, has sent her a Premium Chromo XY/3859 unit, a seven-year-old named Conrad. Determined to prevent the company from taking him back, Berti hatches a wild plan: the model child must become someone the company no longer recognizes – someone who’s disobedient, cheeky, and loud!

Ruth Brauer-Kvam presents Samuel Penderbayne’s opera Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy as a colourful modern fairy tale celebrating diversity and solidarity while exploring the meaning of family and the question of what it means to be ‘perfect’.