Best Before

By Helgard Haug / Stefan Kaegi

Best Before pulls the multi-player video game out of the virtual realm and rewires it for an intimate theatre setting. With a gaming controller in hand, each of the 200 audience members begin as an anonymous avatar – so called actor – interacting with a panel of on-stage experts – an electronic artist, a game tester, a politician and a traffic flagger. Taking its inspiration from Vancouver's video gaming industry, the new world, Bestland, evolves and devolves as the population makes personal, social and political decisions. They clash, collaborate and negotiate the forces that shape their own reality.

With: Duff Armour, Brady Marks / James Foy, Ellen Schultz, Bob Williams / Arjan Dhupia / Johanna S. Santos Bassetti
Live Music: Ron Samworth

Created by: Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi
Dramaturge: Tim Carlson
Video Design: Candelario Andrade
Set Design: Andreas Kahre
Sound Design: Stefan Smulovitz
Lighting Design: John Webber
Game Design: Brady Marks
Character animation and modeling: Carl Emil Carlsen, John Warner
Game Programming: Dan Coburn
Gaming Project Coordination: Sean Arden
Stage Management: Ben Cheung
Production Management: DK
Technical Direction: James Foy
Video interview: Vito Misceo (La Casa Gelato)

Commissioned by PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Co-Producers: Goethe-Institut, Brighton Festival, HAU Berlin, Luminato - Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Rimini Apparat, The Cultch, La Bâtie-Festival de Genève. Supported by Arts Partners in Creative Development and the Federal Republic of Germany

World premiere: January 29th 2010 PuSh/Vancouver - “The Cultch”, Vancouver, British Columbia