Twisted World

2023, performance, Teatro Studio Eleonora Duse, Rome

A disturbing and controversial manifesto on love dazzles the audience with the venom of a 22-year-old from the 21st century, a representative of an underground and rapidly growing community. In the trap of a hypertextual tragedy, one of the most hidden contemporary vulnerabilities is evoked. The incel constructs a narrative, a gamification, of himself and the world around him as a constant punishment. While a massacre unfolds in the background, the deformations of love become visible, appearing like lines of programming code.

The image

A hypertextual device stages Elliot Rodger's manifesto through a narrative video game, broadcast live on Twitch. The events of the manifesto *"My Twisted World"* written by Elliot Rodger are adapted into a video game developed entirely for the performance. On stage, in addition to evoking the figure of Elliot Rodger, a second performer plays the video game and interacts with the audience in the theater and live streaming. Spectators surround the scene arranged like in a courtroom or an anatomical theater. The participatory device allows various narrative paths to be undertaken, shifting the dramaturgical trajectory with every time the performance is repeated.

The research

In May 2014, in California, Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old man, killed six people and injured fourteen others before committing suicide. Prior to the massacre, he uploaded a video online explaining his reasons and sent a handful of people his manifesto-autobiography. The text, which he titled *"My Twisted World,"* recounts all the significant events of his life from early childhood to the day he planned the massacre. The primary reason for Elliot Rodger's actions was tied to the fact that, at 22, he had not experienced a sexual or romantic relationship with a girl. Elliot Rodger is considered an incel, and the most extreme part of the community regards him as a martyr. Incel refers to an online subculture consisting of individuals who self-identify as "involuntary celibates," attributing their lack of romantic and/or sexual relationships to their perceived unattractiveness, which they claim to be objective and beyond their control.

Credits