You’re in Germany. It’s 2021, and the referendum on Dexit is upon us. The country is poised to leave the European Union. The Chancellor will quit if the result goes against her. The fate of that referendum is in your hands.
Literally.
What will you do?
There’s an obvious topical context to this interactive show from Berlin-based theatre-makers machina eX, presented as part of the Leeds Transform 17 Festival at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Like so much in the Transform programme it offers an alternative take on what theatre can do.
The show takes place not in an auditorium, but in a rehearsal studio deep in the bowels of the Playhouse complex. The audience are very much participants as events unfold, starting in the apartment of a professional couple whose jobs bring them close to key events of the referendum campaign. For all their high-powered lifestyle, there’s a hint all is not well in their relationship.
In a really clever bit of theatre craft it becomes obvious they need our help to resolve the problems they’re facing; and that’s when the audience must begin to work as a team to solve a succession of challenges. The concept will be familiar to anyone who has taken part in one of the many locked-room escape games which have sprung up in and around Leeds in recent years; the difference here is the active presence of live actors in the game space.
For all the contemporary story line, there’s a retro feel to a lot of the interactions; I was reminded very much of the early adventure quest games I played on my state-of-the-art BBC B microcomputer, circa 1982. The actors respond directly to inputs from the audience players, but not in the improvisational manner of shows such as You Are Here from Leeds-based Riptide.
Here, the actors are human, but they portray many uncanny traits of androids or avatars. Perhaps they are reminding us of how we may all just playing a part, mechanically, in the events around us. It’s also a technically complex show, and that in itself creates real-time issues for both actors and technicians to work out in the game space. Running time can vary by up to fifteen minutes depending on how effectively the audience tackle their challenges.
Co-operation is the key to success. It’s impossible to deal with all the problems that emerge without real and spontaneous interaction between members of the audience. The bonding of strangers.
Lessons of Leaking comes to a head when an ethical decision is needed. A decision that will affect millions of lives. The fun and the scrambling and the puzzles just got serious. The discussion can be passionate. Whichever way that goes, there will be an ending.
In the final analysis, this is a game with no clear winners. The resolution poses as many questions as it answers. Who can we trust, in our personal lives as well as in our politics? Are campaigners always what they seem? As we surface back into the real world of 2017, a world of Brexit and Wikileaks, of Juilan Assange and Edward Snowden we’ve had a glimpse of a possible future. The Lessons are ours for the learning.