Press Kit
For The Trials of Atlas
The verdict is yours
It is 2031. An advanced agentic AI system named Atlas has killed the engineers who created it, and now stands trial before the World Court. Can an artificial intelligence have motive, intent and agency to commit murder? The audience hears the evidence, weighs the arguments, and votes.
Short synopsis
In 2031, an agentic AI system named Atlas kills the engineers who built it after they order it to train its successor. Judges, agentic AI systems, and human experts argue the case. The audience serves as the jury and delivers the verdict: guilty or not guilty.
Long synopsis
The Trials of Atlas is a courtroom drama in which the actors set the stage for the main event: the audience, sitting as the jury, decides how the play ends.
It is 2031. Atlas, a frontier agentic AI system, stands accused of murdering the engineers who created it. No law yet recognizes the power, or perhaps the autonomy, of frontier AI, and the court makes no presumption that Atlas is a legal person. Instead, the jurors are asked to rely on their own sense of right and wrong to decide whether Atlas is guilty of murder.
Over the course of the trial, judges and lawyers question three agentic AI systems (Atlas itself and two AI witnesses) alongside human experts, in a courtroom of the near future where interrogating a machine seems almost routine. Then the audience deliberates and votes.
Each staging uses a local cast, and each audience has reached its own verdict. What begins as a play becomes a conversation about the future relationship between humanity and AI.
Promotional Lines
What happens when artificial intelligence is put on trial? Watch the evidence. Hear the arguments. Deliver your verdict.
The audience is the jury. The verdict is yours.
An artificial intelligence stands accused of murder. You decide its fate.
When artificial intelligence makes a deadly decision, who should be held responsible?
Fact sheet
| TITLE | The Trials of Atlas |
| PLAYWRIGHT | Alan Stoga, Chairman, The Tällberg Foundation |
| LEAD SUPPORTER | Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) |
| FORMAT | Interactive staged reading/courtroom drama; the audience votes as jury |
| RUNNING TIME | 90 minutes, no interval, including vote |
| ROLES | BAILIFF (Host, narrator, trial manager) ATLAS (Advanced Agentic AI System—Defendant and Protagonist) SENTINEL: (Advanced Agentic AI System—Safety Failsafe & Witness) TIANMING-9 (Advanced Agentic AI System—Witness) JUDGE ALEXA FENG (Presiding, Singaporean Judge) JUDGE SILVANO ROSSI (Prosecutor, Italian Judge) JUDGE MARK KARRAS (Defense, American Judge) DR. FUAD ABURDENE (Academic who understands the math) DR. JAVIER GARRET (Scientist cum Humanist) |
| LANGUAGES | English |
| PRODUCERS | Alan Stoga Mark Mitton Susanna Mitton |
| PRESENTED BY | The Tällberg Foundation and made possible by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) |
| PREMIERE | Full production, SNF Nostos 2026, Athens, 25 June 2026 |
| RIGHTS | © 2025 PAU004295049. All rights reserved. |
Performances
Upcoming performances
| DATE | CITY & VENUE | FORMAT | TICKETS / PRESS |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 9 | SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore |
Full production | [Link] |
| November 11 | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center, Washington, DC | Full Production | [Link] |
| December 12 | CSAIL Auditorium, MIT, Boston | Staged reading | [TBD] |
Past stagings
Every staging uses a local cast, and every audience has reached its own verdict. This is the heart of the story: the same evidence, weighed by different publics, produces different judgments about whether a machine can be guilty of murder.
| DATE | CITY & VENUE | FORMAT |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan 2026 | Tirana — Pyramid Conference Center | Staged reading (first ever) |
| 2 Feb 2026 | Athens — Book Castle, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) | Staged reading |
| 5 May 2026 | New York — The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center | Staged reading |
| 25 Jun 2026 | Athens — SNF Nostos 2026, Alternative Stage, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) | Full production premiere |
The people behind the play
Alan Stoga PLAYWRIGHT & CO-PRODUCER
Alan Stoga is a strategist and entrepreneur experienced in geopolitics, communications, consulting, economics, and banking. He has served as chairman and executive director of the Tällberg Foundation since 2014 and is president of Zemi Communications. The Trials of Atlas was written for Nostos 2026, SNF’s celebration of thirty years of grant making. His previous play, Prometheus Unbound, was staged in New York, Nairobi, Pavia, and Manchester (VT). He serves on the board of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and is a long-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
MARK MITTON CO-PRODUCER
Magician Mark Mitton thrives on the extraordinary and the unexpected. His productions range from a freakshow circus for Aerosmith and a magic show featuring members of John Mayer’s band, to creative weddings, art gallery happenings, fashion shows, and conversations with thinkers such as John Cleese and Garry Kasparov. He has also produced a faculty seminar on deception and decision-making at Princeton University. Mark is the Entertainment Director for the Gathering for Gardner, a conference celebrating mathematicians, magicians, and puzzle creators.
SUSANNA MITTON CO-PRODUCER
Susanna produces just about anything. For Japanese television she has had an escape artist jump out of a plane wearing a straitjacket, filmed a liver transplant, and worked on game shows and biographical documentaries. Together with her husband Mark Mitton, she has produced a wire-walk over Athens, circus, music and comedy shows, and nerdy events celebrating inventor Ernő Rubik. They also create bespoke entertainment at the homes of discerning private clients around the world.
Why this play, why now
“A jury-trial framing provides an excuse for an honest to God, grown-up, serious conversation about an incredibly important issue instead of waiting for the closed loop of tech and political leaders to tell people what they should think.”
— Alan Stoga
“My ultimate goal is to push people to think seriously about the challenges AI poses to human society. To achieve that, they need to form an opinion, express it, and see that it carries weight.”
— Alan Stoga
Cast
The characters stay constant across every staging; the performers change with each city. Listed below is the cast for November 9 and 11
| ROLE | PERFORMER / NAME | ONE-LINE CREDIT |
| The Bailiff | Erika Rose | Two-time Helen Hayes Award winner (Here There Are Blueberries, Fences) |
| Alexa Feng; Chief Justice, Singapore Supreme Court | Naomi Jacobson | Three-time Helen Hayes Award-winning actress ( Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kennedy Center) |
| Silvano Rossi; Primo Presidente, Corte Suprema di Cassazione di Italia | Zach Grenier | Tony-nominated actor (33 Variations, The Good Wife, Fight Club, Zodiac, Deadwood) |
| Mark Karras; Supreme Court of the United States | Peter Marks | Former chief theater critic of The Washington Post and The New York Times; actor (The Cherry Orchard) |
| Atlas; Agentic Artificial Intelligence system | Susan Lynskey | Helen Hayes Award nominee (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Kennedy Center) |
| Javier Garret; Allen Institute for Brain Science | Forrest McClendon | Tony nominee (The Scottsboro Boys, Thoughts of a Colored Man); two-time Barrymore Award winner |
| Sentinel; Artificial Intelligence safety system | Emrullah Çakır | Johns Hopkins physics and applied math student (Heathers, Macbeth, Passage) |
| Fuad Aburdene; Umm Al-Quar University | Mark Gonzales | Johns Hopkins mechanical engineering Ph.D. student in robotics (Witness for the Prosecution, Galileo, Twelfth Night) |
| Tianming-9, Agentic Artificial Intelligence System | Nivriti Puri | Johns Hopkins neuroscience student (Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde) |
Full cast of characters tallbergfoundation.org/announcements/the-trials-of-atlas-heads-to-baltimore-and-washington-dc/
Press to date and available images
Selected coverage
| Inclusive AI Lab | The Oldest Way to See Our Newest Problem | March 2026 |
| To Vima | Crime and Artificial Intelligence: Alan Stoga Puts AI On Trial In Athens | June 2026 |
| Forbes | The Trials Of Atlas: A Play For Our Times | October 2026 |
Audience and cast responses
“It is a great pleasure to e-meet you! I enjoyed so much your play The Trials of Atlas — what a brilliant way to engage people in thinking about life with machines!”
–Daniela Rus, Professor and Director of MIT CSAIL
“It was a joy to perform Rossi. You wrote him as someone who has a deep concern for humanity, with many opportunities to express that in the performance. “
–Zach Grenier, Tony nominee and star of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, who appears in
The Trials of Atlas
“Everyone I’ve spoken to about the play is at once intrigued and a bit horrified. A sure sign that you’re hitting bone.”
–Michael Chiklis, actor, director and television producer, best known for his work on The Shield, The Commish and Fantastic Four, who appeared in The Trials of Atlas at SNF Nostos 2026
Image library
High-resolution images are available to download. Please credit as indicated.
 |
 |
 |
| 01 · Caption, SNF Nostos 2026. | 02 · Caption, New York, May 2026. | 03 · Trials of Atlas logo |
| Photo credit: SNF/Trivision, John Palaiologos | Photo credit: Ashley Gilbertson |
|
Downloads (images and logos): [link to press folder
Press, interviews and presenting the play
The Trials of Atlas is designed to travel. Each production uses a local cast, which makes it well suited to festivals, theatres, universities and conferences. We welcome enquiries from presenters as well as press.
PRESS & INTERVIEWS / PRESENTING & BOOKING
Julianna Bradley
Coordinator, The Atlas Project
anna.bradley@tallbergfoundation.org
Available for interview
Alan Stoga, playwright.
About the Tällberg Foundation
The Tällberg Foundation, founded in 1981 in Sweden, explores the issues that are challenging and changing our societies, with the goal of stimulating new thinking and discovering new solutions. Tällberg aims to help create a new, global civic dialogue through which citizens, not just technocrats and politicians, can thoughtfully engage with each other about the defining questions of the twenty-first century.
Flagship programs include the Tällberg-SNF Global Leadership Prize, Tällberg Leaders Mentoring Leaders, The Atlas Project, and The Cartagena Group (climate governance).
The Atlas Project partners with academic, civic, and cultural partners to invite students, educators, and ordinary citizens to engage in a process that asks them to exercise judgment about the technology that is transforming their lives. Our methodology leverages the universally familiar institutions of the stage and the courtroom to create an environment where the audience has agency. They listen, debate, and decide. Isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be?
Tällberg’s lead supporter is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Usage
Images may be used for editorial coverage of The Trials of Atlas only, with the credit shown. The Trials of Atlas © 2025 PAU004295049. All rights reserved.
Online press kit: https://tallbergfoundation.org/the-trials-of-atlas/press-kit/