A thirty-minute production with one script and a cast you can skip between, Descension is the first production on Chronic Insanity‘s new digital interactive theatre platform, FableMosh.
After premiering at SXSW, the company will release a series of six plays (one eacb month) in a variety of genres, creating online theatre for everyone. You can purchase videos individually for $15 or subscribe for $10 a month or $100 a year. A three-day trial is available.
Descension is a spoken-word play by Lora Krasteva, running 20 minutes. As with each show on FableMosh, a cast of eight actors have recorded every role so you, the viewer, can cross-cast if you wish, or watch each actor perform solo.
There is a optional soundtrack you can run at the same time of the play to add additional atmosphere, but I found this more of a distraction. I can see, however, that this will have strong appeal to some who consume this short-form content.
Each actor interprets the play in a different way. The cast is diverse in age, gender and race. Each recording will be available in different mediums including video, audio, and VR.
Following on from Chronic Insanity’s data driven arts festival Puncture the Screen, FableMosh is yet another exciting chapter in this innovative company’s development.
Starting during the pandemic in 2020, the queer and disability-led company have continued to engage with accessible online theatre and interactive storytelling.
As Chronic Insanity’s artistic director Joe Strickland puts it, “what if you could see more people like you in the stories you watch, connecting with the characters and living through them?”
Descension is a play about the dusappeared, the threat of dictatorship, racism, bias, and is a monologue that captures a moment where the world sees itself at its worst.
The cast are Emily Webster, Jacob Kay, Jordan Laidley, Jamie Stewart, Laura Turner, Marilyn Ann Bird, Peyvand Sadeghian and Victor Itang.
Future productions following Descension are:
Homonculus by Joe Strickland, a comedy horror monologue about the lengths people will go to for online attention.
Gigs by Doug Deans, a gig theatre monologue backed by pounding original music following one couple’s relationship.
Cuckoo’s Corner by Lucy Foster, accompanied by spatial sound design, is a horror monologue of a streamer living in a block of flats having its flammable cladding removed.
Turing: To You by Jamie Drew, is a farcical comedy about the overblown functionality of most AI systems and the ongoing need of human connection.
The Roger Fischer Protocol by Jack Fairey, based on a thought experiment, looks at the relationship between a Prime Minister and the person they keep around with the nuclear launch codes implanted in their chest.
You can explore FableMosh now at www.fablemosh.com and find out more about Chronic Insanity via their LinkTree.