The Yukon Digital Theatre Collective in Canada have started to release their productions online for free, and the first one I checked out is The Investigator by Wren Brian.
It is an interactive piece, a conversation between two characters. You, the audience member, is the invesigator, and you are sent to interview a weaver.
The background is one of war and genocide and the obliteration of people seen as an enemy of the government. You are sent to find out how complicit this weaver is in the enabling of war crimes.
You can play this experience as audio only, text only, or both together. It is designed for a desktop or laptop, although it works just as well on a mobile device cast to a TV screen. The audio is directed by Meredith Pritchard.
The Invesigator works by having you make a decision at various points in the narrative. These decisions will impact what happens next in this extremely text-heavy piece.
Those of you who have watched the work of other digital content producers like Chronic Insanity or CtrlAltRepeat might be a little disappointed at the lack of images, graphics, or video to give the tale some depth.
As it stands, this feels like a well-written and presented audio piece with choices to be made. There is a strong back story and a persuasive theme that gives rise to deep moral questioning.
Running at just less than an hour when I did this, I felt the number of opportunities to influence the narrative were about right, while the ending felt a bit abrupt.
I liked the idea of just focusing on one character’s involvement at a distance, rather than having a soldier or prisoner as a major character – although I could also see the potential of a series following the story from other perspectives.
Jordy Walker’s music and sound add ambience to the piece and give it an additional sense of atmosphere, especially when you listen through headphones.
You can experience The Investigator for yourself here.
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