From September 22, 2023
to September 24, 2023
Tickets are Pick Your Price: $15 | $30 | $45 | $60
Franco Boni Theatre
Friday, September 22 at 6pm
Saturday, September 23 at 4pm
Sunday, September 24 at 2pm
*A vegetarian/vegan meal and snacks will be provided as part of your ticket. For gluten free patrons, there will be crudités and gluten free popcorn available during the performance.
This performance is ~ 7 hours
Curious about the show? Follow along by visiting
asses.masses
Presented by The Theatre Centre
by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim
asses.masses is a one-of-a-kind video game experience redefining the boundaries of live performance. Each night audiences follow the epic journey of a herd of unemployed asses trying to get their jobs back in a world set on forgetting them.
Brave spectators take turns stepping forward from the crowd to seize the means of production (a video game controller) and become the player. It is up to both the audience and their self-elected leaders to finish the game—to discover the space between the work that defines us and the play that frees us.
INTERMISSIONS: There are FOUR intermissions throughout the show, occurring every two episodes.
A vegan/vegetarian meal and snacks will be provided as part of your ticket. There will also be a drinks and more snacks on sale throughout the show!
Patrick Blenkarn (Canada) — co-direction, text, programming, pixel art, 2D animation
Milton Lim (Canada) — co-direction, text, sound design, video, shaders, 3D visual effects Laurel Green (Canada) — dramaturgy, text, touring producer
David Mesiha (Canada) — original music, sound design, audio implementation
Clarissa Picolo (Brazil) — pixel art, 2D animation
William Roth (France) — pixel art, 2D animation
Ariadne Sage (Germany) — 3D environments
Samuel Reinhart (USA) — additional programming
Marcos Krivocapich (Argentina) — Spanish translation
Content Warning:
Contains coarse language, representations of donkeys mating, loud music, flashing lights, audience participation, and strong revolutionary rhetoric. Participation and active spectatorship is a central part of asses.masses. We invite you to be part of our Herd in any way you can. Recommended for ages 14+
“Amid dark humour, fascinating worldbuilding, and multiple minigames (featuring homages to popular games like Pokémon and Metal Gear), asses.masses brings up compelling moral, philosophical, and spiritual questions. Strong character writing paired with well-timed sound effects and music cues carry the emotional side of the story.”
— Kingston Theatre Alliance
“Sending an audience member up to that podium is a sign of trust, and that faith creates a sense of responsibility to the “herd” that is extremely affective for the audience player. To agree to make decisions on behalf of the group is a brave thing… as a collective we quite quickly set a tone where folks felt comfortable shouting out suggestions and tips to the player at the front […] Even though the controller is in their hands, we are working together.”
— Charlotte Dorey, PLAY: The Blog
“My experience was shaped by the audience’s energy and the fact that we were coming together as a community to spearhead this virtual community… we are asses trying to make a change in our world – a change that comes through a communal song and one kick-ass manifesto.”
— Benjamin Ma, PLAY: The Blog
