We sit in rows like patients waiting for the dentist. But the only appointment you have is with yourself in this final show in the trilogy created by Belgium company, Ontroerend Goed, which includes the astonishing The Smile Off Your Face and Internal.
If Smile was about the total surrender of the self and disbelief, and Internal about the treachery we invite from others in the pursuit of intimacy, A Game of You hovers between the two offering a gentler but no less disorientating experience. It's like getting the opportunity to spy upon yourself, and with its series of curtained spaces and mirrors, it's a little bit like a peep show in which you are both the voyeur and the object. You find yourself subject to others' merciless gaze, but there is none more indecent than your own.
It would be a shame to spoil the surprise by telling you exactly what happens, but essentially this is a game in which the rules are bent and that only become apparent as you play. The performance is marked out by its gentle playfulness, but there is no escaping the fact that this little piece gets to the heart of how you see others and how they see you. It is a disconcerting lesson in life and kindness, and a reminder that our private and public selves are seldom the same.
As a standalone piece, I'm not convinced it has quite the impact and power of Smile and Internal. But Ontroerend shows have a habit of only really revealing themselves on second viewing. It's a genuinely unsettling experience, and the best advice I can give is: be yourself, and don't pick your nose.
.png?w=600)
