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CRISIS ACTOR

Vidya Rajan

 

Blending physical theatre and simulated reality, Crisis Actor is an interactive performance where suffering is a vibe and resilience is celebrity.

There has been a disaster. Two actors hold our collective memory of the event. In an escalating competition for our empathy, they pit body and feeling against each other. Via your phone, you’re offered options and pathways to help them win.

Exploring the attention economy, marginalised bodies and victimhood as spectacle, Crisis Actor brings together conventions of contemporary performance, motion-capture technology, reality television and game design.

As comedic as it is unsettling, absurd as it is incisive, Crisis Actor sees us evolve into the Sims of forces greater than ourselves, ushering the uncanny valley into the realm of the everyday.

Credits

Lead Artists
Vidya Rajan, Andrew Sutherland, Sam Mcgilp

Director & Creator
Vidya Rajan

Visual & Technical Designer
Sam Mcgilp

Dramaturgy & Assistant Director
Andrew Sutherland

Creative Technologists
Henry Lai Pyne, Ruby Quail, Quinn Franks

Performers
Jess Nyanda Moyle and Jean Bachoura

Lighting & Sound Designer
Joe Paradise Lui

Production Designer
Romanie Harper

Production Manager
Harry Dowling

Produced by Performing Lines

Photograph by Jesse Vogelaar; Design by Sam Mcgilp and Quinn Franks 

Information for Presenters

Crisis Actor has just undergone its final creative development and will premiere in August 2025. It has been part-commissioned by Arts House, with additional financial support from Creative Victoria, Creative Australia, and the Robert Salzer Foundation.

Presentation History

2025
Now or Never
Melbourne, VIC

Project Partners & Acknowledgements

In everything we do, we acknowledge that we live on Aboriginal land and constantly learn from the wisdom of First Peoples.

Where we are and the history that precedes us informs how we work and how we move forward. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.