The Geminoid F featured alongside a human actress in the Japanese play, Sayonara, which was directed by Oriza Hirata. He said: It wont be that a robot replaces human beings on a drama stage, its more as if a new type of actor has emerged in the theatrical world.

The robot, which is designed to look a quarter Russian, is a copy of a woman around the age of twenty, with long brown hair, and brown eyes.

The play - whose title means goodbye in English is a 20 minute piece where most of the action revolves around an android who recites poetry to a terminally ill woman, after being hired by her parents to be her caregiver. The parents then abandon the girl, leaving her to the androids care.

The Geminoid F was seated throughout the play, with most of her expressions and voice controlled by a human from behind the scenes.

Only 12 motors were used to enable the machine to speak, smile and dumbfound audiences while keeping her eyes blinking and chest moving up and down as if she were actually breathing.

Hirata said: "Android can look very similar to human actors; but more than that, we can technically create a superior actor by featuring all good techniques of human actors such as staring, moving, and talking,"

It is not the first time that Hirata has used a human-looking android in his plays and he insists they are not only good actors but also brilliant in boosting ticket sales.

"For me as a director, there is nothing more appreciable than robot actors ... and the audience always loves to see them acting," the director said.

Watch the Germinoid F in action on Youtube