2006 to 2007
The Perfect Future Game
Context
The Perfect Future Game is a theatrical performance in seven acts in which two actors play seven hands of poker. The setting for the performance features seven paintings, each one depicting a memory of a fictional character known as "the artist". Each painting shows a site that the artist returned to in order to recollect the past.
At the end of each hand, the winner's cards are counted. A formula is then applied, designed by mathematician Dr David Odell, to provide a date in the 2007 calendar year (the future at the time of the work's production). This system mirrors the the sum of all the pips in a pack of cards, which equals 365. In the Perfect Future Game, this formula is however used to assign each of the seven memories to a date in the 2007 calendar year.
The combination of the memories recounted by the actors and the game of poker resemble time itself, as the present is split in two directions, while the past remains irresolute (as it does with the future perfect tense).
The play can be performed by anyone, and the artist’s memories substituted with those of any other person. The poker game is always live.
The play has been performed twice, for ARC Biennale at QUT Museum, Brisbane, in 2007 and at Melbourne's Gertrude Contemporary Art Space in 2006.
The complete script is available to download here.
Time Projects
