BERTIE is a virtual reality (VR) experience for the stage, in which one group of people meet within an immersive video game conceived specifically for this project. Thrown into the apocalyptic scenario of a multiplayer online game about to end, the player-performers use VR goggles and avatars to explore a tecno-melancholic terrain, replete with piles of digital trash and abandoned characters, and deal with questions of legacy, what it means to be an orphan and of waste.
BERTIE interconnects theatres, cities and distant audiences, creating a hybrid experience, simultaneously presential and digital, which can occur in three different cities, three separate spaces within the same city or three rooms within a single building. The show explores themes such as techno-anxiety, new forms of empathy, and gaming communities, prioritizing sustainability and
environmental conservation by reinventing models of circulation and promoting a remote working flux which reduces dislocation and the transportation of stage elements. We propose a new ethics for digital socializing: we do not reject technology but we reclaim the political space within these environments that are dominated by Big Tech.
