Anti-Gone
A Performance in Mixed-Reality by Theo Triantafyllidis
May 11th & 12th, 7pm
Duration: 3 acts, 60mins, no intermission

In a post-climate change world, environmental catastrophe has become normalized. Cities are sunken, yet the vestiges of late-capitalist culture – consumerism, inequality, social unrest – live on, clinging like barnacles to the ruins of civilization. Spyda and Lynxa are a couple navigating this world frictionlessly. On their sailboat, they glide from shopping to movies to psychedelic drugs. In a damaged world where you can have anything you want, what’s the cost?

Theo Triantafyllidis’ debut feature-length performance, Anti-Gone, is a sprawling experiment in 3D world-building, real-time simulation, interactivity and theatricality. Adapted from the eponymous graphic novel by Connor Willumsen, Triantafyllidis takes the idiosyncratic narrative and visual style of Anti-Gone as a platform to explore the possibilities and limitations of what was once called “Theater”. As Triantafyllidis re-creates the world of Willumsen’s Anti-Gone as a series of 3D scenes, performers Matthew Doyle, Lindsey Normington and Zana Gankhyug embark on improvisational excursions in this mediated world. The performers explore dramatic tropes from absurdist theater to psychological realism and somatic awareness, while the game engine performs alongside them. The actors presence is augmented and complicated by virtual reality headsets, motion capture suits and audio DSP. Using these tools, Triantafyllidis directs and shapes the world that is being presented to both the performers and the audience in real time. Anti-Gone asserts theatricality as a new way of thinking fictionally, as real space is re-incorporated into subjective game logics. The audience is given a theater re-invigorated with new techniques for pleasure and play as the world outside simulates its own destruction…

Based on the original comic book by Connor Willumsen
Produced by Matthew Doyle
Starring Lindsey Normington, Zana Gankhuyag, Matthew Doyle
Lighting Design by Connor Childs
Sound by Jeffrey Alan Scudder
Production Assistant Polina Miliou
Special Thanks to Mari Spirito, Celia Hollander, Luke Fischbeck.

Theo Triantafyllidis is represented by The Breeder, Athens and Meredith Rosen, New York.

With the support of UCLA Design | Media Arts, bitforms gallery.
Technical sponsorship by Barco Projectors, Noitom MoCap.

Advance tickets may be purchased here