This interactive theatre piece put the audience as the respective security council of USA and USSR during the cold war. The decisions of the audience play out the different outcomes in the involvement in a civil war of a fictional country. Prisoner’s dilemma is the theory the play is based and decision are made while the other group is blindfolded.
There are some interesting points regarding warfare and the cold war put froward by the play as the decision making progresses. It also emphasizes the iterative process that can happen in multiple games of the prisoner’s dilemma. The story which linked all the events are not entirely clear at the beginning but untangled itself as the show goes on. There was real tension in one or two of the later scenes. The actors Simon Carroll-Jones and Robert Macpherson did a great job in playing the respective chief of security service and suitably carry the 1960s American and Russian spy act without being stereotyped. The story outline can be a little stronger and the conclusion can be more definitely but it is an enjoyable and interesting show.
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