If you could hold the years of your life in your hands like coins, would you choose to spend them differently? This is the thoughtful, earnest tone of Ten Ways to Die Happy, an existential but somewhat formulaic Italian production (performed here in English) created by Emanuele Aldrovandi and Jacopo Giacomoni. In this gentle gameshow, we are asked not just to consider how we would use the finite time we have, but to put this thought experiment into practice.
Eight people are plucked at random from the audience. My number is called, so I don a white robe, choose a new name for my new life, and take a seat on stage. Perla Ambrosini is our ethereal host, standing in fabric armour in a shallow pool of water. Each of us has a tray of flowers that we throw into the pool, every plastic bud representing the “energy” available to invest in work, art and family. Once our supply is up, we’re dead.
Ambrosini efficiently guides us across the years, Dungeon Master-like, through fumbling sex, consuming grief and boring jobs. Over the course of our lives, we control little counters to mark our levels of happiness. “The aim of the game,” Ambrosini tells us, “is to die happy.”
There’s no doubt the show induces more of an elevated heart-rate if you’re on the top table – though there are opportunities for broader audience participation. But even if you are one of the chosen ones, the show’s pace remains fairly sedentary.
Some of the interaction is cringe, and while there’s never a sense that you’ll say something wrong, neither is there ever a truly difficult dilemma, nor a decision that feels more poignant than if you were casually playing the board game Catan. While the performance is conducted with an intense sense of ceremony, the drama of the actual game would be improved by greater stakes. But in its blunt reflections and visual confrontations, Ten Ways to Die Happy is a welcome reminder that we should all make the most of the time we have.
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At Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, until 31 August
