Mercury III project
Pointed Portland
In Development
Written by Reena Dutt
Every neighborhood has a mystery to solve…and residents with clues. Similar to Spoon River Anthology, everyone’s history develops based on who you ask, and how your hippocampus recollects these memories.
In this piece (utilizing Eko or a similar platform, an online choose-your-own-adventure concept) we take six residents surrounding a mystery in one Portland neighborhood. Each person tells us a glimpse of their story in 3-5 minute monologues at their homes that lends to solving the mystery, dropping more names as they go along.
The audience member can then choose which name they’d like to speak to next. As they continue watching monologues from residents, you find twists and turns on perspective based on referrals and relationships to each other. Who is telling lies and who is speaking the honest truth? Are there hints in their homes that will lead the audience in a different direction? Logistically, there will be a total of 36 permutations of perspective from each resident, a spiderweb of new information that the audience member needs to weave through to solve the crime.
At any given point, the audience can opt to solve the crime, and find out if they are correct. If they’re not, they continue the hunt, or are given the ultimate reveal.