“MINE” at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts

How cool is this show scheduled to be at the Shadbolt Centre November 14th to 17th? A Theatre Replacement show called MINE – a digital exploration of mothers and sons through the lens of Minecraft*.

*MINE is not an official Minecraft product, nor is it affiliated with Mojang.

Using the computer construction game Minecraft as a kind of theatre, a group of gamer/performers between the ages of 10 and 45 enact different narratives, live, in front of an audience of roughly the same age.

In a rocky and mountainous landscape, they tell the story of Grendel’s mother’s brutal act of revenge from the Beowulf saga. They travel to a clearing in the woods to reveal the brief but powerful lessons that Bambi’s mother taught him, before that horrible day in the meadow.

Somewhere in a nearby city, a cyborg assassin travels back from the year 2029 to 1984 to destroy a woman named Sarah Connor and her son John Connor, who hasn’t been born yet, but who will one day save the human race from machines.

As the performance unfolds, personal stories begin to emerge from the landscape and weave themselves into the narratives: Grendel becomes a tweenage kid who just wants to stay in his room and play videogames, Bambi’s mother’s instinct to protect her son becomes a metaphor for a failed family trip to the Grand Canyon; The Terminator story evolves to reveal all the misplaced prophecies a mother places on her son — it’s a lot of pressure, and Mom worries way too much.

More stories intermingle and mash up; of hyper-strength and fatal forgetfulness; of galactic love and fear. Of regret and shame. Of a most powerful bond. MINE opens us up to expansive and strange new territories in a performance that both interrogates and recognizes the role technology plays in our modern parent-child relationships.

MINE is created and performed by Maiko Yamamoto and her son Hokuto MacDuff, Conor Wylie, Remy Siu (Hong Kong Exile) and a group of 4 local gamer/performers between the ages of 10 and 14. Dramaturgy by Carmen Aguirre and design by Leah Weinstein. 

MINE will be playing at the Shadbolt Centre at 8pm on November 14th to 17th. Tickets range in price from $15 to $36 and are available at the box office (604-205-3000) as well as available online.