Goethe Institut – Mainstage, 812 7th St. NW

Remaining Performances:

Friday, July 8 at 8:15 p.m.
Tuesday, July 19 at 10 p.m.
Saturday, July 23 at 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 24 at 6 p.m.

They say: What does your data say about you? Come beta test e-Geaux and discover yourself in this app-etizing combination of theater, improv, and data visualization. Optimized for those with Android and Apple mobiles devices, but fun for everyone.

Adam’s take: Sometimes the audience is rightfully the star of the show. No oversized ego is needed to know that it is your fellow theatergoers who should really be centerstage. Often we miss our chance to meet those people sitting in the adjacent rows. Not anymore. Thanks to the entrepreneurial performers in Pepys, Inc. Their incredible innovation, e-Geaux (beta), is the app we have all anxiously waited for. How many Facebook friends does the person next to me have? Might someone else in the audience also love that embarrassing karaoke picture of a drunk you yelling into a microphone? Those questions (and many more) can now be answered with e-Geaux (beta).

Here, for a limited time is the opportunity to test it out. You, too, can attend this interactive infomercial in which Mr. Joseph Price, the founder and CEO, who combines the savviness of Steve Jobs with the tenacity of Ron Popeil, will lure you into using his latest app by demonstrating just what it is that your mobile phone can do. With a script heavy in clever flirtatiousness (with only a modicum of passive aggressiveness), the witty humor is not the product of a lone geeky software designer but collaborative, creative human minds. Under the direction of Amy Couchoud, the hour-long performance has few moments not worthy of a laugh.

While the underlying plotline may be about challenging ubiquitous acceptance of cellular technologies, it is the e-Geaux (beta) itself, put on display by acquiescent audience members willing to share their Facebook data, that allows the supporting performers, Catherine Deadman, Derek Hills, and Jason Pittman, to do their best work. Where the acting may be less than authentic, the interactive software and the imaginative concept makes the experience feel almost a bit too real, if not too personal. Every person who attends e-Geaux (beta) may learn a little bit about themselves, and perhaps a lot about their fellow attendees.  But most importantly, they can say they were there, that they witnessed a beta testing of e-Geaux, before it became the next big app that forever transformed the dynamics of the theater and the limits of social media.

See it if: You absolutely hate having to turn off your phone when you go to the theater.

Skip it if: Flipping through Facebook makes you scared of getting a paper cut.

Fringe & Purge Editor’s Note: Pepys, Inc. performer Derek Hills is also a Fringe & Purge contributor.