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asses.masses // Co-Hosted by Risk/Reward
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
Join PAM CUT for a one-night-only marathon video game, food, and live theater extravaganza like no other. During this epic 8-bit video game, audience members must work together to determine the fate of the revolution. Four intermissions with snacks will be provided during the experience, with additional food and beverages available for sale.
ON SCREEN: asses.masses
Created by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim. Runtime: 7 hours 30 minutes.
The unemployed donkeys have one demand: the humans must surrender their machines and give all donkeys their jobs back. But revolution is never easy!
asses.masses is a custom-made video game about labor, technophobia, and sharing the load of revolution, designed to be played from beginning to end in a live theater. This is gaming as performance, an immersive, cheeky, and highly original work. Brave spectators take turns at the controller to lead the herd through a post-Industrial society, where asses are valued more for their hides than their potential. Confronting automation-driven job loss, nostalgia as a barrier to progress, and the role of technology in adaptation, it is encouraged to find space between the defining work and the freeing play. asses.masses is Animal Farm meets Pokémon meets Final Fantasy, as exciting in form as it is in content. No previous gaming (or donkey) experience is required.
This presentation of asses.masses is co-presented by Risk/Reward. Risk/Reward has been providing space and resources for artists from the Pacific Northwest to develop and present their work for over 16 years. An early version of asses.masses was presented at Risk/Reward’s Festival of New Performance at Imago Theatre in 2019.