Shay Mace
After the hit success of documentary theatre piece Lessons on Revolution at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Playwright-Performer Sam Rees returns to the festival this year with Carmen Collective to offer up GAMEPLAY, an ‘audio-described myth for the end times’, possibly featuring Daily Mail critic Quentin Letts, experimentally racing through history, into the contemporary, and far into the future. We caught up with Sam and Sound Designer-Performer AJ Turner to find out more about this intriguing concept.
You can catch GAMEPLAY at 10 Dome at Pleasance Dome on August 5th – 31st (not the 17th) from 14:40 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Sam & AJ, tell us about GAMEPLAY and why you have decided to bring this to the stage now?
Sam: Hello! GAMEPLAY is an audio-described myth for the end times. What this means in practice is that the show is for both sighted and partially-sighted audiences; the form of the piece deploys integrated audio description, this means lots of different things depending on the context, but in our piece everything is described through the text as it happens. It’s a show about imagination and as such refuses to privilege sight as the main method of meaning-making.
The show began as a response to the fact that just over a year ago the Prime Minister declared that the UK is now on a war footing. The premise of GAMEPLAY is actually quite simple. You (the audience) have come to the theatre to see a show. Alongside you is a Daily Mail theatre critic wondering what all this is about. What you don’t know is that this is the last show that you will ever see, because while you are in the theatre an emergency is declared. In the moment between the silence and the bomb, we consider what it means to be a citizen in the imperial core in 2026; a central character that we deal with in the performance is Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet naval officer who saved the world from the brink of disaster during the Cuban missile crisis. Through considering Vasili, we unpack what it means to say no in the face of what seems like inevitable catastrophe. The show is produced in partnership with Pleasance and Camden People’s Theatre and we are so honoured to have their support.
Shay: How has the creative process been of putting the show together? Give us an idea of the journey you’ve been on with it so far.
Sam: The project has been in the works in one shape or form for over two years now. The show began as a commission by CPT as part of their Starting Blocks scheme, an incredible space for artists to develop their new work. Without drawing an equivalence with myself, it was amazing to be a part of a programme with alumni like Louise Orwin, PISS/Carnation, Rachel Mars and Adam Lenson, all artists who I look up to a great deal. I wrote the text and perform it alongside my co-creator AJ Turner, a sound artist who performs a live score throughout the piece. We both worked in a highly collaborative way alongside our creative producer Ella Dale across a year to find the right language for the piece. Alongside this, we have worked closely with audio describers Roz Chalmers (MBE) and Part of the Main, and Sam Brewer as an access dramaturg. Throughout, AD of Camden People’s Theatre Rio Matchett has provided dramaturgical support. Although the piece only has one spoken voice, it is the culmination of multiple minds working together. This will be GAMEPLAY’s public debut, and unfurling this weird little piece and showing it to the world at Edinburgh with such amazing support from Pleasance and CPT is an honour.
Shay: What will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
AJ: The music as the audience enters is my warped version of the Dance of the Cygnets in a specific broadcast of Swan Lake that melds with some of the music which appears later in the show. The broadcast was played on a continuous loop on Soviet state TV during the failed August Coup of 1991 which happened directly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. We found it really interesting how the state controllers would pull the scheduled programmes during those intense moments of political instability or when a Soviet leader dies and replace it with Swan Lake as some kind of distraction and to bring a sense of calm whilst they were trying to figure out what to do. It being used in this way to try and calm people as their world around them was crumbling has a lot of connections to the tensions within GAMEPLAY, and so it’s really a precursor to that tension we want the audience to feel.
Shay: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
Sam: One thing we’re quite clear about in the context of the show is that space functions differently for different people, and that no mode of perception or reception is preferred. But with that said, I do hope that, in a festival of noise and chaos, GAMEPLAY makes you stop for a moment and pause for breath. It’s an intense piece but we’re also trying to pause for breath and take things down to the barebones: what exactly are we all doing here in this room? We’re trying to create a world, for one hour every day, where people can come back to themselves a bit, to take stock, and to (hopefully) move forward with a different perspective as they rush to the next performance they have booked in.
Shay: What journey has the show been on to find itself at EdFringe 2026?
Sam: As said earlier, GAMEPLAY is presented in partnership with Pleasance and CPT. With The State of The Industry, we wouldn’t be able to do this without these two venues behind us, both of whom have such amazing track records in platforming work with access provision and championing alternative perspectives. The show is unashamedly experimental (although we like to think this doesn’t mean it’s not a laugh as well) and, given that the space for artists to make bold decisions is shrinking by the hour, it feels important to make sure we’re a part of the conversation at the biggest theatre festival in the world. We have something to say, and we want to say it to as many of you as possible.
Shay: With EdFringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
AJ: EdFringe is such a special melting pot of so many different kinds of performance, and it’s always the shows that take me by surprise that stick with me the most. It’s those shows I haven’t heard about yet or the artists I don’t know yet that someone will mention to me that I’ll take a punt on, and then leave completely blown away. So what I’m actually the most excited for is what I don’t yet know about! So come grab us after the show and let us know what you’ve seen and loved!
Shay: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
AJ: I’d go for a shot of tequila with an orange slice chaser. I know lime and salt is the classic but honestly try it with orange (and a bit of cinnamon if you have it) – it’s SO good. GAMEPLAY is a really visceral show that we want to hit people in that kind of guttural way, but there’s a different flavour that lingers after, there’s so much kindness and sweetness in it too.
A reminder, you can catch GAMEPLAY at 10 Dome at Pleasance Dome on August 5th – 31st (not the 17th) from 14:40 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
