The Fringe is Beginning: On your phone

“Thus with a kiss I die.” But will you?

Copy-of-rj-OC-interdiscThe 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival kicks off for real tomorrow (some performances have already begun), but the fun has already started on your mobile phone.

R&J is a multi-day mobile game casting two strangers as Shakespeare’s impetuous, hormonal, star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Each day, partners perform intimacy-inducing missions and mini-games that correspond to one of the five dramatic, teen-angsty days during which Romeo & Juliet unfolds. The script is set, but can players change their fate?

R&J can be played with a friend or, more authentically, with a total stranger (which, lest we forget, R&J were to each other at the start of this intense, intimate catastrophe). Each day players will be given prompts that gamify the themes, narrative, and tone of the play, starting with social, conversational games and moving toward giving up creature comforts and human connection just as Juliet does when she swallows the apothecary’s drugs.

Players might be headed toward a tragic end but the last five days of their lives will be the best ever as they finally get over their useless ex gf- Rosalind, meet and marry their soulmate, get banished from their hometown, tell off their control freak Dad, and fake poison themselves.

R&J has been presented at Come Out and Play (NYC, 2017), and Bandwi/d/th International Online Togetherness Festival (International, 2018). Veteran fringe artist and multi-disciplinary game designer Jessica Creane (Capacity for Veracity, Slaughter/ette), creates games that inspire audience agency and weave seamlessly into everyday life. She is a graduate of The Pig Iron School of Advanced Performance Training and she is currently working with The National Parks Service to create a multi-player game examining the intricacies of climate change. Her game-theater performance Chaos Theory is also being presented as part of the 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Visit fringearts.com/event/rj throughout the Festival to being your mobile adventure.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.