If Robot Wars met Little Big Planet playing an old stlyee Amstrad adventure game and turned it into an audience-wide interactive game… you’d get a vague glimpse of how Robo Bingo works. And even when it doesn’t work – it works.
Pete and Lloyd (Foxdog Studios) are the very picture of deadpan dry seriousness in their matching yellow shirts and light chinos, a selection of butchered and bolted together bits of tech variously stuck on or hung about their persons, placing them at the centre of the activity.
The premise is both simple and complicated: every audience member connects to the Foxdog Studios site on their smart phone, logs in, and proceeds to play a variety of bingo cards that change as the show progresses. Numbers and other card place-holders are displayed on a big screen also used for this and various clips, games and live video feed, with side quests and a friendship narrative involving a mascot that looks scarily like something Jigsaw (from the Saw movies) may have created and a frog. It’s a bit steampunk, it’s a bit nuts, it’s a smidge anarchic, totally immersive and a whole load of fun.
The creativity involved and eye for detail is a delight. From a mock court with audience members designated power over such things as doors, lights and stenographer notes, to a rather sweet exploration of the Isle Of Man and it’s history and geographical points of interest in search of further bingo pointers. The finale brings everyone to a button-mashing musical crescendo, with grins on faces and the urge to do it all again tomorrow.
Foxdog Studios: Robo Bingo
Underbelly, Cowgate – Delhi Belly, 20:25, 4-27 August 2023
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/foxdog-studios-robo-bingo
