INFINITE LIVES
WRITING INSPIRED BY VIDEO GAMES

A one-hour live show of songs, stories and poetry inspired by video games, past and present.

Last year, ESA (the Entertainment Software Agency) revealed that the average age of the most frequent game player is 33 years old. The children who began buying video games for their Atari 2600 in 1982 are still gripped 25 years later, somehow incapable of putting down the game controller and doing anything constructive, like putting up a shelf. Such news is yet more proof that video games can no longer be seen as the preserve of childhood, but as a global phenomenon rippling though popular culture, influencing film, music, art, and even philosophy.

Considering this influence, four young writers – Joe Dunthorne, Tim Clare, Ross Sutherland and Chris Hicks - have sacked off more serious worthy subjects of literature in order to spend an evening analyzing the secret language of computer games. Will they manage to uncover the secret levels of the video game multiverse, only to discover that video games have escaped their casings, absorbing entire swathes of architecture, workspace and lovelife? Or will they just become fatter and a bit less sociable? Infinite Lives investigates.

Combining the live forms of ‘literary recital’, ‘comedy club’ and ‘episode of Gamesmaster’, Infinite Lives includes a live text adventure, a Street Fighter 2 tournament, a eulogy for players who failed to complete Time Crisis 2, a song for Donkey Kong’s heroine, and many more secrets still waiting to be unlocked.