Bots take center stage

​If R2D2 took an acid trip, he’d no doubt wind up in the world of Heddatron, Elizabeth Meriwether’s spaced-out story of a Michigan housewife, Henrik Ibsen and robot abduction. If that sounds like input overload, imagine the task of pulling off a show featuring five functioning robots on ion theatre’s little BLKBOX stage. The ‘bots are the stars of the show, but a human cast led by Monique Gaffney as abductee Jane Gordon holds its own in a production directed by ion’s Claudio Raygoza. Besides the transcontinental travel, there’s a time-travel subplot, in which a doofus Ibsen (Charles Peters) tangles with August Strindberg, a deprecating wife and an uneasy legacy. Heddatron is a narrative and audio-visual mishmash not for the conventional theater-goer, or for those who can’t abide Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” resurrected to shuddering effect.