On audiences and players

It's festival time in Edinburgh at the moment. This means the population of the city doubles, and large chunks of the world's rainforests are cut down in order to accommodate all the leaflets being printed for various obscure shows.

It also means an explosion in experimental and interesting forms of entertainment, theatre and performance.

Eireann's post reminded me of an incident at last year's festival. A theatre group called Badac put on an experimental performance based on the Holocaust. It involved spectators becoming victims, enticed to move throughout various locations while being shouted and sworn at in quite intimidating circumstances. A number of people, including a few critics who later wrote about their experiences, refused to play along. The performers had not prepared for what would happen if an audience member didn't do what they wanted and expected. The fall-out was bad, with the director throwing fits and threatening people, and a number of angry exchanges taking place in national newspapers.

To someone who works with games, the idea that you could design an interactive piece and not take into consideration unexpected behaviour from your audience/participants/players/whatever seems unbelievable. Rule one of design pretty much states that the player will try to break your game, so be as prepared as you can.

It always gets messy when several people are trying to get their own way, and tell their own story. And I think Eireann is right, I'll give him that, in that at some point, it all becomes real. Whether it ends with police involvement or just a great day out. With other people involved, with control both given to you, but also out of your hands, with the ambiguity that comes with existing in a space you have to share with other people and not just inside your own mind. With that it pretty much becomes real.

Drama, interaction and tension is good. Hopefully this year's festival will see more of the same kind.