A Game Of You [Smock Alley Theater] - Dublin Theater Festival - Review

The context of immersive theater has become an interesting personification of the modern fringe theater scene because it allows one to watch and be watched at the same time. Within the texture of the Dublin Theater Festival, the experience of "A Game Of You" takes together modern sociological references and blends them with the infinite modulation of modern technological times where it is possible to record every aspect of a life. Think "Truman Show" within the twist of a shrink haunted house.

Created inside the Smock Alley Theater in Temple Bar Dublin, the interaction takes you into different rooms build upon pre-conceived and improv scenarios that you either respond to or don't. What is interesting especially in the intimate quarters (which is created in a bit of a David Lynch "Twin Peaks" red curtain motif) is that the ideas of what you say are used to portray a more brisk version of your personality reflects in how you sound and appear to others. For the right people, it is an interesting psychological experiment and can juxtapose itself to whatever aspect of person you are. The angle is simply one-on-one as long as the participant remains truthful to what they are seeing and doing. The performers push the scene while you as the audience member wonder as to the intention but also want to be involved to the nth degree to be able to make the endeavor palatable.Again the aspect of technology reflection and the fact that everything you see, do and hear is recorded in a final room before you sit in a mirror scenario (where one initially does not know who performer and audience is) is quite riveting. Some might not like what they hear but its basis is a function of the audience/performer interaction. This outlay, in many ways, is how theater should be pushing itself because it gets under your skin and make you examine the ways people (and you as a person) interact both globally and on a close intellectual and sociological level with others. Big Brother would be proud because the key to enlightenment is retaining a state of being, whether one likes it or not.