Fittingly, the framing device for Sluts with Consoles is a series of video game levels. The play from Dogmouth Theatre, which made a stop at the Old Fire Station last Saturday, takes a thoughtful look at the agonies and ecstasies of gaming while female.
For a long time, Player Two (Alice Flynn, who also wrote and designed the piece) has been the only playable female character. That changes when Player One (Mia Harvey) is added. Finding out that her new counterpart has never made it past level one of a popular game, Player Two gives her an unsolicited education in the most influential games of the past twenty years.
The levels in the play also serve to tell the story of a young woman growing up a gamer, from playing Mario Kart against her brother as a kid, to Call of Duty as a teenager, each chapter takes a different style of gameplay. In just an hour, we traverse through landscapes as distinct as Wii dance games, and Mortal Kombat. There’s an effectively menacing Slenderman-themed level as the characters contend head-on with Gamergate, a harassment campaign against women in the gaming industry in 2014, and the still-present sexism and misogyny today.
Fynn’s character uses a sarcastic ‘not-like-other-girls’ persona as armour against her male gamer friends’ misogyny, willing to throw other women under the bus to avoid the same fate, while Harvey’s Player One is a proudly girly girl who enjoys playing a Manic Pixie Gamer Girl role but is oblivious to other women’s suffering. Dogmouth Theatre describes themselves as ‘Riot Grrl Inspired’ and that feminist lens is crystal clear here. Both Player One and Two are nuanced characters with things to learn from each other, and their conversation is frequently hilarious, in a way that reminded me of the similarly chaotic TV show Broad City.
The set and sound design here are a marvel. A large projector shows graphics from the games invoked, and also the play’s own game graphics, with choices coming up throughout and reminders from a male AI voice providing instructions to the two players. This is perfectly pitched to underpin, rather than distract from, the two actors' performances. It helps that there's clever use of props as well, from dubious accessories for the makeover game section to a bag of Doritos and can of Monster energy for a mid-COD snack. When one character becomes an E-girl and dons headphones with built-in cat ears, I laughed aloud at the accuracy.
There was also a small element of audience involvement, which was foreshadowed by the offer of different coloured participation stickers pre-event. Green meant you were happy to interact in whatever capacity, whereas Red meant absolutely not, with Yellow and Orange in between. While a considerate idea, it may have overemphasized the very minor amount of audience participation actually included in the show. Audience members are asked to name the players and choose between props at times, one is invited onstage briefly. But beyond endearing the audience, there’s no real point to the interaction.
But that’s a minor criticism in a bright, punchy and moving show that will resonate with both gamers and those who have never picked up a console before; I saw the show with a friend group that included both, and we all left impressed.