You know you’ve watched at least one. You may have hated yourself
the whole time you did, but you definitely did. You got addicted
to it, despite or maybe even because of how fucking inane it was.
You had favorites. You definitely hated one guy. You cheered when
a contestant you were rooting for got chosen for that thing…
…on that reality dating show.
Can you imagine presenting one of those live? Because Chisa
Hutchinson did. She’s calling it DATING COMPREHENSION. It’s a
highly interactive, live-theater spoof of a competitive dating
show. So fun. So fab. So deceptively frivolous.
After witnessing (and personally experiencing) many a ridiculous
micro-aggression in the date-osphere, Chisa felt compelled to use
this show as a tool to offer up sly commentary on classism,
racism, gender inequality and the general superficial nature of
humans. She hopes it will get people to examine the roots of the
unhealthy biases and standards that manifest in their love lives.
But even if social critique isn’t your thing, at least you’ll
still be entertained.
The Premise:
A single woman just wants to find one person with whom she’d like
to go on a second date.
That’s it. That’s the goal.
The Process:
As the woman engages in a series of activities with a pre-selected
pool of 5 candidates, the audience will offer real-time feedback
and vote via a chat platform specially created for the show to
help her winnow the pool down to 2 candidates. Then she chooses
which of the 2 remaining candidates gets the second date.
The Platforms:
This website is full of ancillary engagement tools intended to
help with promoting and enhancing the show. It’s where each
company that produces this play can create their own Dating
Comprehension Universe by uploading (pre-scripted) “audition
videos” for the daters on which the audience can comment. It’s
also where folks who purchase a ticket can watch a livestream of a
performance, comment on what they’re seeing, and vote to decide
who advances to the next round.
Bonus:
At the live performances, the participants can fill out a
compatibility quiz for a chance to be live-matched with someone
else in the audience. The producing company can even offer them a
mini-date at the end of the show.
It’s all game. And scalable. And hella gimmicky. But if that’s
what it takes to get people out of their post-pandemic hidey-holes
and connecting with each other in fun and potentially meaningful
ways, maybe even thinking more deeply about the social
implications of shit, then that’s a game worth playing.