Three New York Neo-Futurists create their own versions of Zork, Minecraft and Zelda in their first Nerdcore musical

It’s a small room, but I have no complaints. You Are In An Open Field, playing at HERE in lower Manhattan, is a comedy based on three friends who refuse that reality is better than the fantasy world of video games. As the audience walks in, they see a couch on the right of the stage with all the actors’ props behind it. To the left, two men in casual jean-and-t-shirt apparel are accessorized with an electric guitar and key tar, and play the electric-nerdy music composed by Carl Riehl. These electric-nerdy beats include various samples from video games such as Pac-Man and Zork.

Kevin R. Free, Adam Smith, and Maria Rainer play themselves, as the three best friends whose reality becomes, unclear to the audience, morphs with a video game. The show, directed by Christopher Dippel, lacks a full story line, but makes up for it with a series of improvisational sketches. The most notable sketch was the freestyle challenge all there actors were required to freestyle a line from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that an audience member chose at random.

The giant projector posted up in the wall behind the characters adds to the show the most. The whimsical videos, made by Liliana Dirks-Goodman, serve as a backdrop and also give vital information for audience to follow along. The cast delivers a lively performance through their song and dance, which Kevin R. Free – a not so small actor – nimbly dances against the ninja who incessantly attempts to thwart their plots. If you desire to reminisce on the days before there was Xbox Live or stunning graphics, You Are In An Open Field is the show for you.