Assigned Earth at Birth (Intrapology S01E01)
Tea (Xander Graves) has discovered that they are not an ordinary human - they are a transdimensional being, assigned to earth to carry out anthropological fieldwork. We influence their behaviour in their first meetings via video call with their otherworldly drag king supervisor, Iris (Caitlin Magnall-Kearns). Understandably, Tea is furious about being assigned to such a horrible project, and demands to be reassigned; but relocation has unanticipated consequences for both characters.
Made to be performed
This is an interactive playscript, written for a live interactive online queer sci-fi performance. When staged using our original software Intrinsink, the audience votes for what the main character will say and do, as well as contributing free text to stream-of-consciousness monologues.
Watch a recording of the live performance on our Patreon or on our Peertube!
Intrapology
Created by Zoyander Street
Co-designed with D. Squinkifer
Starring Xander Graves, Caitlin Magnall-Kearns,
Fadumo Hassan and D. Squinkifer
Intrapology is all about how people make worlds together, and the cataclysmic social fragmentation that threatens to unmake them. It focuses on the perspectives of neurodivergent queer folk, as alien anthropologists doing fieldwork on earth. They interact via video call with their supervisors at the fictional Transdimensional Research Institute, an alien university that has been decimated by cuts to the fabric of reality. Together they expose the comedy and terror of living in a world that was not built with people like you in mind.
The audience collectively shapes the story, experiencing the show on a web page that looks like the protagonist’s computer desktop. Through this online format, Intrapology aims to reach disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent audiences that have been left behind by the return to in-person events. It aims to move beyond the limitations of online theatre as we know it, with an approach to design that draws on alternative indie games culture.
“This is like a narrative-driven indie videogame, but it’s performed live by real actors”, says creator Zoyander Street, who has been working at the weird fringes of games since the early 2010s. This project began life as a 2021 collaboration between Zoyander and Canadian queer games artist D. Squinkifer. “As a chronically-ill queer person living in Rotherham in the 2020s, it can sometimes feel like the rest of the world has vanished. I rely on online events and communities to feel alive and connected to others.”
Past performances
10th November 2023, with the Social Model & More at Theatre Delicatessen
9th January 2024, with Worlds in Play at Arizona State University
Thursday 26th September 2024, with Now Play This
Contact us
020 3287 9692
Instagram and Tiktok: @intrapology
Website: https://intrapology.com
Press kit: https://intrapology.notion.site/
About us
Intrapology is created by Dr Zoyander Street (they/them). Zoyander is a neuroqueer and disabled writer, researcher, and digital artist, creating interactive media based on social and historical research. Their work has been shown around the world, including Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago, Vancouver, and London. They are a supported artist at Sheffield Theatres, and a fellow of the Imaginary College at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination.
Intrapology’s queer sci-fi storyworld is inspired by the lived experience of queer disabled people, as well as research in feminist technoscience studies. It developed out of a collaboration with D. Squinkifer, and its format is based on their MFA project Coffee: A Misunderstanding, which was a finalist at renowned indie games festival IndieCade 2014 and toured internationally.
D. Squinkifer (they/he) creates games and playable experiences about gender identity, social awkwardness, and miscellaneous silliness. They are responsible for such critically acclaimed works as Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!” and Coffee: A Misunderstanding. In 2015, they were recognized as part of Forbes’s “30 under 30 in Games”.
Caitlin Magnall-Kearns (she/they) plays the role of Iris. They are a writer from East Belfast, and currently part of the BBC Comedy Collective 2024.
In addition to a handful of supporters on Patreon, Intrapology has been made possible by a Project Grant from Arts Council England. Software development supported by Innovate UK and Creative UK. Early development was supported by the Sheffield Theatres Bank Cohort, Barrel Organ Theatre’s Barnsley LIVE, and the New Conversations Canada-UK Exchange (British Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Farnham Maltings, High Commission of Canada in the UK).
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