An ambitious and unique interactive performance that blurs the lines between theatre, installation, and video games is coming to Glasgow this October. asses.masses, a seven-hour “durational video game performance,” will take over the Tramway on Saturday, October 26th.
Created by Canadian interdisciplinary artists Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim, the event invites the audience to become the players in a live, collaborative video game. Together, participants will control a herd of unemployed donkeys as they navigate a vast, collapsing post-industrial world rendered in a simple yet evocative pixel-art style.
The entire seven-hour journey will be projected onto a large screen, transforming the theatre space into a collective arcade. Audience members are free to drop in and out of the performance at any time, taking turns at the controls to guide the donkey through its epic, allegorical quest. Food will, of course, be provided.
The Vision: Games as Live, Theatrical Art
For Patrick and Milton, the project emerged from a shared passion for creating live art experiences that are “alive and contingent on the people in the room.” Speaking to the Scottish Games Network, they explained that asses.masses is their answer to a core question about the potential of interactive experiences in the 21st century.
“We come from an experimental and devised theatre tradition,” they explained. “To make the jump from playing a ‘game’ within a theatrical scene to making a ‘game’ to be played on a stage wasn’t, from our perspectives, such a far-fetched thing to do.”
The performance is a powerful example of the More Than Games philosophy, showcasing how the mechanics of play can be used to create compelling, long-form performance art. Patrick and Milton believe that, if framed correctly, video games can “conjure exactly the kinds of liveness and social gathering that so many of us desire to see in our theatres.”
An Epic Adventure for Everyone
So what can the audience expect? The creators describe it as “Animal Farm meets Pokémon meets Final Fantasy,” an epic adventure where comrades, friends, and strangers will bring to life the story of a herd of unemployed donkeys trying to make their way in a world set on forgetting them.
“It’s an event you won’t want to miss,” they conclude, stressing that no prior gaming – or donkey wrangling – experience is required.
For developers, artists, and anyone interested in the cutting edge of interactive entertainment, asses.masses offers a rare opportunity to see game design principles used in a radically different context. It promises to be a meditative, political, and utterly unique event in Scotland’s cultural calendar.
Event Details:
- What: asses.masses – A seven-hour live video game performance
- Where: Tramway, 25 Albert Dr, Glasgow G41 2PE
- When: Saturday, October 26th, 2025, from 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Tickets: Tickets are available now, and audience members can come and go as they please throughout the seven-hour performance.
For more information and to book your tickets, visit the Take Me Somewhere festival website.
Scottish Games Network spoke to the team behind the game, to find out more about the
Scottishgames.net: What was the inspiration for the work that you are bringing to Take Me Somewhere?
Patrick & Milton: asses.masses emerged from a few years of casually researching historical representations of donkeys and a shared interest in seeing what might happen if we started making games to be played within theatrical contexts. We first came together to make a card game in 2018 called culturecapital; the following year we presented the first prototype of the video game asses.masses.
The whole theatrical event of asses.masses, including the game, is driven by our passion for creating theatrical/live art experiences that feel alive and contingent on the people in the room, as well as by Role-Playing Games (RPGs) with epic stories, high drama, and loveable characters—equal to those one might find in the theatrical canon.
SGN: Would you describe your work in any particular performance tradition, or are their certain artists with whom you share an approach, affinity or attitude?
We come from an experimental and devised theatre tradition, as well as having studied philosophy (Patrick) and psychology (Milton). We often say that much of our theatrical training already involved games and/or concepts of play and participation. So to make the jump from playing a ‘game’ within a theatrical scene to making a ‘game’ to be played on a stage wasn’t, from our perspectives, such a far-fetched thing to do.
As we tour the world with asses.masses, we often find ourselves alongside other artists working in participatory modes. There are too many to name, but we think we’re largely all chasing a similar question about the political and social potential of theatre or live experiences in the 21st century.
SGN: Given the way of the world at the moment, how far do you feel that performance, especially experimental work, can respond to the current political situation?
Our art festivals and theatres tend to reserve room for the known and accepted kinds of stage productions we understand as art, but many kinds of contemporary performance exist outside of those paradigms. If framed correctly, video games and card games and table top role-playing games can conjure exactly the kinds of liveness and social gathering that so many of us desire to see in our theatres. (See any number of books by theatre artists calling for more risk, more liveness, more “you had to be there” vibes.)
We strongly believe in the potential of live art and communally shared experiences to create opportunities for exchange between people. For us, this often involves putting a lot of trust in our audiences to take up the platforms we give them: to fill out the narratives on their own, or to finish the game, to self-organize and take care of each other, and collectively work to make a special event for and with each other.
SGN: What can audiences expect to experience, feel and take away from the production?
They can expect to embark on an epic adventure with comrades, friends, and strangers who, we hope, will become friends throughout the day. Over ten episodes, multiple meals, many players, and many more backseat drivers, audiences will bring to life the story of a herd of unemployed donkeys trying to make their way in a world dead set on forgetting them. asses.masses is a long haul, but it goes by in a flash. Fun. Political. Communal. And full of ass (word)play. We say it’s Animal Farm meets Pokémon meets Final Fantasy, and no gaming—nor donkey—experience is required. It’s an event you won’t want to miss.