Game Over (2019) - a devised multi-platform play

Madrid-based theatre company Grumelot creates work that often involves superimposed theatrical modes, with the spectators taking an active role by choosing where to focus their attention.

For Game Over, they wanted to see “how many platforms could be used at once to establish the most intimate of connections with the spectator.” The resulting piece is devised theatre reimagined for multiple platforms, and also a new kind of immersive theatre under lockdown, which an audience of sixty to seventy viewers from across the world experienced on 4 July 2020.

The show took place alternately via WhatsApp, Instagram, Spotify, Youtube, Zoom, and in a black box with a reduced-in person audience.

Mr. Sardonicus (1961) - the world's first interactive movie

Interactive cinema follows the conventions of traditional filmmaking, with the addition of “Choose Your Own Adventure” aspirations. The genre puts non-linear storytelling in the hands of the spectator, who can direct the course of the film through choices at specific intervals.

Mr. Sardonicus follows Baron Sardonicus, who threatens to harm his wife if prominent medical doctor Robert Cargrave fails to treat the baron’s bizarre facial disfigurement. Watch the trailer to hear how the director left the ending up to the audience through the "Punishment Poll".

Although the director claims that he shot a “mercy” ending, that alternative was never chosen in theaters and some suspect that it never existed. Still, the fact that movie-goers at least possessed the illusion of choice was a revolutionary experience.