Creator/performer Sébastien Heins invites Toronto to a joyous, high-octane, deeply personal adventure story, all experienced at the touch of a button. Video games, theatre and memoir collide in No Save Points as Heins places the control(er) in the hands of the audience, entrusting them to pilot his performance using state-of-the-art motion capture and haptic technology.

Intimate and innovative, the piece is inspired by the real-life story of Heins’ mother being diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, a rare genetic illness. No Save Points is crafted for gamers and theatre-lovers alike.

Audiences will see Hein becomes a video game character before their very eyes. A select group of audience members will sit onstage in the “Player’s Pen” where they’ll use a wireless controller to direct Heins’ actions by sending signals to receivers located on his body. Later in the show, more audience members will get to take their turn playing on the buttons, and by the end of the evening the whole audience will take control of the performance.

Throughout it all, the audience will help Heins navigate through a medieval court, save citizens as a caped crusader, side-scroll across a mysterious island and, ultimately, find himself once again on the dark side of the moon.

In my conversation with Heins, he talks about in more detail about the show’s evolution and development alongside many community partners and artists. Altogether No Save Points is about having fun in this game-like environment while considering personal and deep questions such as “what do we do with the time that we have?”.

No Save Points is a hybrid performance that will require audience participation, which I encourage you to partake in… So be ready to make some critical choices and most importantly, be sure to bring your A-B game!

No Save Points performances run until June 25, 2023. For show and ticket information, please visit outsidethemarch.ca.