Patrick Blenkarn & Milton Lim ASSES.MASSES

Theatre 12€

Saturday 24 October · until 25 Oct

asses.masses is a collective game in which anyone who wants can play. The duration of the show depends on the choices made by the audience throughout the game. There will be four intervals with food and drink. The show contains strobe lights, themes such as mental health, suicide, police brutality and sexual representations.

Synopsis Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim ASSES.MASSES ACCESSIBILITY asses.masses is a collective game in which anyone who wants can play. The duration of the show depends on the choices made by the audience throughout the game. There will be four intervals with food and drink. The show contains strobe lights, themes such as mental health, suicide, police brutality and sexual representations. asses.masses is a video game designed to be played on stage and live by the audience in a theatre, one person at a time. It tells the epic story of a group of unemployed donkeys (asses) trying to get their jobs back while facing the dangers of a post-industrial society from which they were dismissed. As an experience, asses.masses is a collaborative journey that the audience takes, in which the video game is played from start to finish in a single session over about 8 hours, 10 episodes and 4 intervals (with food and drink). It was designed so that, while the one elected leader takes over the means of production (the controller), the rest of the audience watches the story unfold, encourages the player, makes suggestions and helps make decisions. Bold, political and a mix of Animal Farm with Pokémon and Final Fantasy, asses.masses hands control to the audience and invites it to discover the space between the work that defines us and the play that frees us. Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim are conceptual artists who explore questions about the social value of art, digital labour and the political potential of games. With training in performance, philosophy, psychology and digital media, the duo develops collaborations that take the form of video games, participatory installations, digital archives and card games. They are also co-founders of the Canadian national archive of performance video (videocan) and creators of several projects that have toured Canada, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Turkey, the UK and the USA. Upcoming projects include dam.nation, about the true story of twenty Canadian beavers acquired by the Argentine government in 1946, and DRAGONS, a show for young audiences about power, hierarchy and teenage dragons. After passing through Teatro Municipal do Porto in 2025, they now premiere at TBA. Co-direction, text, programming, pixel art and 2D animation Patrick Blenkarn Co-direction, text, sound design, video, shaders and 3D visual effects Milton Lim Dramaturgy, text and tour production Laurel Green Original music and sound David Mesiha Pixel art and 2D animation Clarissa Picolo, William Roth 3D environments Ariadne Sage Additional programming Samuel Reinhart Portuguese translation Clarissa Picolo Tour operation Patrick Blenkarn, Milton Lim, Laurel Green, David Mesiha, Stéphane Noel, Marc Villanueva Mir International distribution Stéphane Noël / Material Support Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, The Theatre Centre, VIVO Media Arts, Embassies of Canada in Argentina and Paraguay Financial support Creative BC, British Columbia Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts Co-production National Arts Centre of Canada’s National Creation Fund Prices Discounts Not cumulative and not applicable to single prices. Under 18 years Single price €3 Under 25 years Single price €5 50% discount Unemployed people