Performance

Duration: 7h30 with 4 intermissions

Warning: asses.masses includes flashing lights, audience participation, violence, explicit language, simulated sex with donkeys, simulated sex with humans, and references to drug use, suicide, and police brutality. We recommend it for audiences aged 14 and older. This performance is not suitable for young children.

Description

Without any kind of user manual, Canadian artists Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim invite us to an exhilarating and wild full-day gaming experience. The epic adventures of a herd of donkeys unfold in a 10-episode game where aesthetics, game genres, and narratives multiply, with witty remarks rubbing shoulders with scenes of copulation, reincarnation, and revolution.

Rendered unemployed in a post-industrial world, the donkeys embark on a quest to regain their jobs. Will humans agree to scrap the machines and give them back their roles? In this ingeniously political interactive experience, the triumph of the beasts lies in the hands of the collective that the audience now forms, becoming the sole performers of the show. Gradually, revolutionary fervor takes over the room, where power is negotiated and solidarity spreads.

Biography

Both based in Vancouver and internationally recognized, Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim are interdisciplinary artists whose practice focuses on research and the creation of conceptual and playful experiences. Their joint and individual projects explore participatory, immersive, and interactive art, examining the social value of art, the role of labor in a digital world, diverse forms of discourse, and the political and artistic potential of gaming.

They are co-creators of culturecapital (culturecapital.cards), a collectible card game and performance project about the performing arts economy in Canada, and videocan (videocan.ca), an online platform for video archives of Canadian performances.

In addition to his collaborations with Blenkarn, Lim is an associate artist at Theatre Conspiracy, co-artistic director of the interdisciplinary company Hong Kong Exile, and an artist-in-residence with the National Theatre School of Canada's Artistic Leadership program. His work is widely recognized and presented across Canada and internationally.

Blenkarn, for his part, participates in residencies at galleries and theaters worldwide, from Norway to Argentina and Montréal. His work is showcased across Canada as well as in America and Europe. He co-directs the interdisciplinary company Guilty by Association.

Credits

A production by Patrick Blenkarn + Milton Lim

Direction, text, programming, pixel art, 2D animation: Patrick Blenkarn

Direction, text, sound design, video, shaders, 3D visual effects: Milton Lim

Dramaturgy, text, touring production: Laurel Green

Original music, sound design, audio implementation: David Mesiha

Pixel art, 2D animation: Clarissa Picolo + William Roth

3D environment: Ariadne Sage

Additional programming: Samuel Reinhart

French translation: Gilles Poulin-Denis

Created with the support of: Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (Burnaby) + The Theatre Centre (Toronto) + VIVO Media Arts (Vancouver)

Development funded by: Creative BC (Vancouver) + British Columbia Arts Council + Embassy of Canada in Argentina and Paraguay

Produced in collaboration with: National Arts Centre Creation Fund (Ottawa)

Refunds

No refunds