Hundreds of people watched a play unfold in The Sims 4

Celine Song adapted Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull on The Sims 4

 

 

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull begins with a play within the play. Inside a stylish mansion, decorative window curtains are replaced with dramatic, red theater drapes. A large mirror — at least 10 feet in length — is centered on the wall behind with curtains. A group of onlookers, at least six of them, wander around the perimeter. All the while, an exasperated Celine Song frantically clicks on the couches: “Sit together!”

 

Song, the Canadian playwright who wrote Endlings, is putting on an adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull using The Sims 4 as a stage. The play, called The Seagull on The Sims 4, was broadcast live on Twitch Tuesday and Wednesday night. She’s calling the project “a durational installation art piece,” using both a familiar, classic text and a ubiquitous life simulation game.

 

Song “cast” the actors ahead of the play, or rather designed them in the game, live on Twitch. With help from an audience of more than 600 viewers, she assigned them clothing and personality traits. These “actors” had to play The Seagull’s characters, like Constantine Treplieff, the creative and driven playwright who Song called “the original incel,” and Masha, the emo goth girl — wearing a studded jacket — who’d rather be alone.

 

 

And so, the Sim playing Nina stood alone on the stage, reciting the dramatic monologue in Constantine’s play in front of an audience that could not sit still. Song — again, controlling the Sims, mashed buttons to keep the group of onlookers engaged, but it ended up being no use. Sims, of course, operate with “free will,” meaning that if they have a different need to be fulfilled — say, they’re hungry or need to pee — they’ll do that, rather than what they’re commanded to do by the player.

 

That makes creating a live production, where the Sims (as actors) should follow the player’s every move, much more chaotic. But it also helps reimagine this classic text in a way that’s both profound and hilarious.

 

Song’s adaptation of The Seagull on The Sims 4 is part of the New York Theatre Workshop’s Artistic Instigators program, which was started during the pandemic to support artists while in-person performances were halted. The goal is for these artists to create experiences and installations within the boundaries of the current moment — to redefine what’s possible in these spaces when so much just isn’t possible.

 

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen a shift to online worlds, as people looked to connect in physically distanced ways. Pandemic birthday parties and celebrations were held in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with deaths mourned there, too. Other events, like political rallies, are largely unsafe — large gatherings of people are to be avoided — so politicians, too, are looking to digital venues for their events. Rather than appearing in-person in a physical space, U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez livestreamed Among Us to encourage young people to vote. Perhaps it’s an event that could have been held — in another, safer time — as an in-person event. But would have it been as successful?

 

 

 

Source: Polygon