You probably think theater is boring and gaming is for nerds… Fused will prove you wrong.
Fused: A Live Point-and-click Adventure
Fused is the tale of a lowly launderette worker, Ste (right). He begins the show by setting the scene and informing the audience he just wants to shut up shop and get to his job interview in ten minutes.
A simple act to describe the mundane context of a show. Then Ste does something unusual. He just stands there…waiting for instruction. These instructions are to come from the randomly selected audience members now sitting in the front row, passing a microphone along.
The audience must control Ste and get him to interact with the other characters and objects on stage. The show takes cues from point-and-click adventure games such as Monkey Island (left), Grim Fandango and the Telltale Games series. This is not the time to switch off, as the show is far from being solely of interest to gamers. It’s hilarious, largely improvised and ridiculously tense.
In the left corner of the Fused stage’s backdrop (above), a clock informs the audience that they only have a certain amount of time to guide Ste through his puzzle. For example, to begin the audience has ten minutes to get the other people out of the launderette while every action just adds a new puzzle to be solved. In typical adventure game style, this simple task brings the Ste on a much longer journey which is highly entertaining.
Most impressive about Fused is simply the engagement. I was on the edge of my seat, shouting at the front row audience members controlling Ste, amazed at how they missed something obvious but then solved something I had not considered.
Fused is running in the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, until the 13th December.
