VIRTUAL RITUAL
Imagine a city full of people ruthlessly pursuing wealth, fame and the good life, at any cost. Where everyone you met was either a celebrity, trying to be a celebrity, or used to be a celebrity. Where nature´s bounty meant you could enjoy perfect weather all year round. Where the air was so good you could literally see and taste it? Dare to dream, because that city exists...
Virtual Ritual is an original gaming performance that takes you on a digital urbanist trip through the virtual city of an online video game. It is an exploration of a digital society formed by millions of people around the world who log into the vast gaming world every day. There are rules to a game, though, and this one is no exception. Also, virtual cities quite often resemble real ones.
Urbanist Osamu Okamura, YouTuber Atlet, photographer and gamer Adéla Vosičková: an expert gaming panel unpacks hidden mechanisms, prototypes and rituals that shape the seemingly weightless world of MMOs. What norms, rules, and codes are allowed to surpass? How is the digital city designed to mediate the proper urban experience? How do digital citizens actually live? And what happens when we mistake virtual for real and vice versa? Virtual Ritual is a daring promise to the audience: after watching our show your city will never be the same to you.
"The ability to raise questions that are not entirely easy to answer (and yet demand answers quite urgently) is one of Mocek's strongest weapons."
Mikulka, SAD
"A trio of performers tests not only the complex possibilities of digital megapolis but, above all, humorously glosses the parallels, even the irreconcilable contradictions, of both networked and real life."
Klár, Theatre Journal
VIRTUAL RITUAL
Concept, direction, scenography: Jan Mocek
Acting: Osamu Okamura, Adéla Vosičková, Ondřej Pokorný
Cooperating artists: Sodja lotker, Táňa Švehlová
Sound and light: Ondřej Husar
Music: Matouš Hekela
Production: Táňa Švehlová
With support from / acknowledgments: Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, State Fund for Culture, Život Umělce Foundation, SixHouses z.s.
