Nathan’s becoming untethered. His circuits are fried and now the boundaries between his real life and his virtual “workplace” are becoming alarmingly blurred.
He’s beginning to doubt the motives of his employers. Wasn’t this supposed to be a simple job? If he’s only been contracted to flesh-out the emotional range of a few characters in an online murder mystery game, then why does he need to be restarted over and over, sent up the manholes to test an increasingly unpredictable and harrowing series of storylines?
Dawson Nichols is an internationally renowned performer and playwright, based in Seattle. For the 2014 Adelaide Fringe he brings two solo shows, Virtual Solitaire and I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe. He’s a spectacularly talented actor, offering a nuanced and disturbing performance of multiple characters (more than two dozen) – an entire ensemble cast of one.
Virtual Solitaire probes the origins of thought and the possibilities of the mind as landscape to be explored. Instead of life as habit, destined for regret, maybe we should strive to “explore the sounding depths…to cast our minds across the seas of chance”?
He might be the only one on stage, but the power of Nichols’ writing and characterisation carries us forward into unknown territories. It’s convoluted and completely absorbing.
The kaleidoscopic intricacies fold in on themselves, dragging us deeper inside the VR (virtual reality) world and Nathan’s hypnotic, labyrinthine journey. When the night reaches out for Nathan, he finally accepts his fate and faces it head on, calm and brave. He just wants to feel it like it is.
This is a superb show, rich in ideas and the examination of life’s purpose.
Virtual Solitaire is at the Science Exchange Auditorium (at RiAus) until February 22. I Might be Edgar Allan Poe will be at the Bakehouse from March 3-15.
Adelaide Fringe hub
Click here for all InDaily’s 2014 Adelaide Fringe stories and reviews.
