The Piper McKenzie theater company in Brooklyn are currently performing “Theater of the Arcade” for this year’s FringeNYC Festival. It’s an adaptation of five video game classics as minimalist plays in the style of famous playwrights. Here are this year’s offerings:
A violent brute holds an innocent young woman captive and attacks anyone who dares approach. A glutton eats everything in sight while running away from the ghosts that haunt him. A lone survivor forges a peril-ridden path towards a lush refuge he can never reach. […] This collection of short plays explore what happens when stories born of the arcade are given the high literary respect and dramaturgical rigor they deserve. [LaughingSquid]
*adjusts monocle* Quite.
Below is one of the plays performed last year, “Harold Pinter’s Duck Hunt”, which was written by Jeff Lewonczyk, directed by Gyda Arber, and performed by Fred Backus and Josh Mertz. If you’ve ever sat through a Pinter play, or shouted “Get on with it!” at an English period drama, this parody is for you.
[Hat tip and a gulch full of ducks to LaughingSquid.]