'Game' questions privacy and voyeurism
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A scene from the play “Game” / Courtesy of Doosan Art Center
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Ticketholders of the new play “Game” at Doosan Art Center’s Space 111 do not enter the theater through the usual entrance. Instead, they are ushered to a door in the back of the theater used by cast and staffers.
The black box theater is transformed into a slick model home, complete with a flat screen television, a kitchen sink and even a fancy bath tub. Audiences are seated around the small home to observe the new residents ― newlyweds Ashley and Carly ― as they move into the house. Their life seems normal and happy, until a gunshot rings out and Ashley collapses while the two bathe together.
The second of Doosan Humanities Theater Series 2016, “Game” is a 2015 play by British playwright Mike Bartlett.
The play offers a voyeuristic look at a couple's relationship in a reality television setting during the era of "house poor," which describes those who spend large amounts of their income on trying to achieve home ownership through mortgage payments but who cannot afford other necessary expenditure such as car payments.
Ashley and Carly live in the neat house for free. They are even paid to live in the house. Instead, the young couple, who cannot buy their own home, pay rent in a non-traditional way by giving up their privacy.
The house can be watched by "customers," who pay to sneak a peek at the house and even shoot them with tranquilizer guns ― 1 million won for male Ashley and 1.2 million won for a more delicate Carly per shot. Ashley and Carly are stunned and pass out for a moment, before resuming their lives, pretending nothing has happened.
The audiences can see the customers and David, the manager of Ashley and Carly's house, through monitors installed above the stage.
The violence intensifies, but the couple as well as the audience, become numb to it. At first, the time for "viewing" was designated, but soon the couple do not know whether someone is watching them or not at the moment.
Ashley and Carly, who were shy of the eyes in the beginning, get bolder, attempting sexual intercourse while being watched. Customers do not hesitate to fire at the couple in quick succession or target Liam, the son of Ashley and Carly born in the house.
However, the couple cannot leave the house because they cannot make enough money to live properly outside the game, which reflects the cruel reality of people who are house poor.
Director Jeon In-cheol did not separate the audience from the couple's house. Instead, the audience sometimes feel themselves being watched from the people in the monitor, maximizing the brutality of voyeurism.
Instead of slapping the audiences' consciousness bluntly, the play gives food for thought ― the thin line between privacy and voyeurism in the age of materialism.
“Game” runs through May 15. Tickets cost 30,000 won. The play is for over 17. For more information, visit
or call 02-708-5001.