‘Asses.Masses’ Is Absurd, Amazing And A Genuinely Life-Affirming Experience

It’s not everyday that the phrase “There’s nothing like it” actually applies to something, but it’s genuinely true to say that I’ve never experienced anything remotely similar to Asses.Masses.

An utterly unique mix of video game and live theatre experience, this experience is one that I sense I’ll cherish for years to come. Despite the absurdity of its narrative and gameplay about a herd of donkeys starting an uprising, Asses.Masses resonates strongly over its approximately 7-hour runtime with commentary about class inequality, storytelling and the communities they form as one pops up in real time.

Walking into the Opera House’s Drama Theatre for this oddball show in the Sydney Festival lineup, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. An ominous rotating cube is the sole visual on screen, paired with a podium hosting a single controller. After a brief introduction and explanation by creatives Laurel Green and Milton Lim, the entirety of the Asses.Masses experience is transferred to the hands of the audience.

As the first brave soul steps up to the controller to answer a questionnaire, a fascinating phenomena occurs immediately: a community is born. People immediately start shouting out what they think are the right answers, and working together to figure out how to move forward. A question in German threatens to stump the crowd, before someone reveals they speak it: cheers erupt.

Asses.Masses instantly creates community through play

That sense of instantaneous community is essential to the story of Asses.Masses, which sees a group of donkeys with colourful personalities and names kickstart a revolution as the humans they’ve relied on for so long replace them with machines. There’s Old Ass, Smart Ass, Nice Ass and Bad Ass to name a few, and despite their funny names it’s actually surprisingly easy to get invested in this lot of asses.

Part of what makes Asses.Masses so brilliant is that it’s a genuinely wonderfully-designed video game, made by people who clearly understand the artform’s storytelling potential. It’s constantly switching gameplay styles and genres (the first time it makes the switch from 2D to 3D is transcendent), embracing everything from Final Fantasy to Metal Gear Solid across its epic runtime.

The constant switching up means that no two sequences are exactly the same for any player who steps up, encouraging a collaborative approach between audience members to figure out how to progress. It makes Asses.Masses often feel like the world’s biggest sleepover, where you and hundreds of other friends take turns on the controller on the journey to beating the game.

There is something genuinely awe-inspiring at the heart of Asses.Masses, which allows its many audience members to form a wordless connection through a truly shared experience. Even compared to other interactive theatre experiences, there’s a sense of freedom in this experience that genuinely seeks to redefine the borders of play and performance while allowing effortless relationship-building with our fellow humans.

My experience on the controller…

I’d like to share my experience stepping up to the controller in Asses.Masses, which I believe communicates the unique qualities of the experience. Truth be told, I’m a bit of a gamer, and that interest in the artform is largely what interested me in this experience to begin with. After our group had figured out a queue system for the game, I decided to join and ended up in a platformer section.

After getting a feel for the controls, I started flying through the level. People behind me would surge with oohs and ahhs, watching as I poured my focus into this section. Then, came a tough jump that I nailed on the first try – leading to an eruption of applause and cheers from throughout the room. I’d be lying if I said a feeling of total euphoria didn’t wash over me at that moment.

But what I ultimately think was so beautiful about my Asses.Masses experience is that everyone got that level of excitement and cheer when they relinquished control. It didn’t matter if it was a stealth segment, a tight race against another ass in donkey heaven or even just a huge choice being made.

The fact that my group was so willing to make absolutely everybody feel welcome and celebrated in their willingness to step up and play was genuinely life-affirming for me, and an urgent reminder that even people who’ve never met before can come together in service of a collective goal. It’s not a feeling I expected Asses.Masses to give me, but it’s one that I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Asses.Masses was at Sydney Festival from January 24-25.