The Avatar Condition – An invitation to being controlled

There is no audience.
There are no actors.
The Avatar Condition is something else.
Discover who you become when someone else makes your decisions.

Gabriel Widing from Interacting arts writes about his latest project The Avatar Condition (Avatarvaro in Swedish) which will be running at Turteatern in Stockholm December 8-11. Is neither larp or traditional theatre. It explores the position of the avatar as “an invitation to being controlled”.

The Avatar Condition is made by Albin Werle, Ebba Petrén, Elize Arvefjord, Gabriel Widing, Kerstin Weimers, Klara Backman, Moa Backman and Tova Gerge.

Web: The Avatar Condition
Photo: Gabriel Widing

Update 9/12: Blog post about the testrun: Read it here (English Google translate).

Article by Petter Karlsson

Masked and immersed at the theatre

In the article Sleep No More = LARP + Shakespeare + Absinthe + Orgy Masks on io9 the writer Cyriaque Lamar reviews the theatre company Punchdrunk‘s Sleep No More. The audience all wear masks and are able to explore the 1930s hotel, as well as following an altered version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a seemingly linear form.

Oh right, Sleep No More. It’s mind-blowing. Should you go, don’t bother trying to figure out the plot by trailing a single actor (there’s a $20 script bible for sale at the end if you’re hell-bent on deciphering the actors’ handsome flailings). Instead, wander around the hotel’s floors and investigate its many nooks and crannies. I’m not sure what the security camera situation is in Sleep No More, but I wouldn’t be surprised if amorous exhibitionists have conducted their own Lambada-like danse macabre in the hotel’s more cloistered recesses.

But yes, the audience can touch almost everything and are free to rifle through the building’s many desks and shelves. Do be forewarned that vigilant, skull-masked guardians will corral any rowdies to the curb.
Sleep No More = LARP + Shakespeare + Absinthe + Orgy Masks

Video report by Brodway.com

I you have the possibilty to attend… you might want to take the advice from Alexis Bittar who hosted the opening earlier this year.

I recommend it, but you will have more fun if you pretend you are one of the actors.

Web: Sleep No More
Photo: Sleep No More

Have you seen it? Would you like to? Please share your thoughts in commentaries.