To close their 2024/5 season, Chester Little Theatre chose a new work written by company member Andy Fox-Hutchings. Pixel Perfect is an imaginative piece of writing that takes us on a journey into the metaverse.
Welcome to the multi-player virtual world of Pixel Perfect Life, an online, virtual reality role-play game in which players immerse themselves (or, at least, their chosen avatars) in alternate lives – a sort of cut-price ‘Second Life’.
At first we are introduced to some of the players inside the game environment (aided by some nifty costume and set design elements that emphasize the unreality of the characters) but all is not well. The software has a lot of glitches and the avatars find themselves struggling with basic movement and speech. It seems that the player base for the game is diminishing, and the company that runs it may be going to pull the plug. They certainly don’t seem to be offering much technical support, and the world is creaking at the seams.
Outside the game, in the physical world, some of our players and their non-gaming friends discuss the pros and cons of spending so much time in a virtual life. Is it a harmless means of exploring alter-egos and fantasies, or does it become so real to some players that their actual life is the one that becomes virtual?
Increasingly concerned about a potential ‘end of the world’ scenario, the players decide to attend a convention where they can meet the tech-gurus behind Pixel Perfect Life and, more importantly, each other. In a reversal of the theatrical technique where one actor plays multiple characters, here we find individual characters played by more than one actor. In a second act that ends up as a kind of hi-tech form of farce, people meet the real-life versions of those who they were involved in friendships with inside the game.
The play explores themes of identity and self-image, and the way in which modern life encourages us both to try and fit into the mould that others cast us in whilst simultaneously relying on technology and virtual experiences to avoid the constraints of reality. It also speaks of the importance of finding our own true selves and being the best version of who we really are, with the help of genuine human contact.
The cast is made up of Vikki Yard, Jonathan Johnston, Lexie Fox-Hutchings, Jessica Kitto, Milo Lesnichiy and Patrick Bailey, and under the deft direction of Charlie Nunez they navigate their way safely through the complex twists and turns of the occasionally murky narrative, bringing a lot of wit and humour to a story that also contains strong themes of self-doubt and insecurity.
Here and there the text feels a little over didactic, in that it re-states its message a little too much, although this may be a result of Fox-Hutchings wanting to ensure clarity in the play’s inherently unrealistic world, but this is nothing that a little trimming and tightening could not fix.
Pixel Perfect is a play with a lot to say about the highs and lows of learning to love yourself in a society filled with unrealistic expectation, and it highlights the importance of being genuine in an increasingly artificial world.
Milo Lesnichiy, Patrick Bailey, Vikki Yard and Jessica Kitto - picture by Stephen Cain
This review was originally written for publication
by Good News
Liverpool
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