Navigating the boundary of art, gaming and war.

“A smart theatrical essay on the re-calibration of our concept of war.” (Theaterkrant)

With the rise of virtual warfare the difference between playing a wargame like Battlefield and the firing of real weapons has become much smaller. What about ethics now that the enemy has been reduced to a series of pixels on a screen ?

In The Automated Sniper  theatre maker Julian Hetzel draws a poignant parallel between contemporary warfare (in which drones are replacing the 'classic' weapons) videogames and art. The performance is a choreography of the gamification of violence. A biting exercise in militainment.

On a virgin white stage there are two actors (Bas van Rijnsoever and Claudio Rietfeld) sighted by a specially designed paintball machine. Steered by an invisible voice (Ana Wild) they are shot at : first by people in the audience, but afterwards also by a gamer from Iraq, 5000 kilometres away from the scene of the crime...

The performance itself is literally shot to pieces. Julian Hetzel in De Standaard  : “If we artists -without much budget- can develop such a machine, what will happen if someone with bad intentions, more money and real weapons can just do the same ? I can't bear to think about it.”

The Automated Sniper is a smart but sour sample of committed performance art, which is also very funny at times. 35-year-old Hetzel, who grew up in Germany but is working in The Netherlands, has often been called one of the most exciting voices in contemporary theatre.