INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE | Immersive Theatre | Toplocentrala

INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE
Immersive theatre performance presented by Karakashyan & Artists in co-production with One Dance Festival

23.04 | 19:30
25.06 | 19:30
02.09 | 19:30
19.10 | 19:30
01.12 | 19:30

Tickets:
https://payment.toplocentrala.bg/repertoires/184/insert-coin-player-one

Who will win? The audience decides.

Loading, start, action... This is a game where the digital and the real world intersect, and characters from the screen step into the theatre. Video games and real life are a whirlwind of quests with thrilling tension, even as we play them with different identities and avatars. That's why dance enters the gaming mechanics. Director and choreographer Kosta Karakashyan also turns the audience into actors in his new performance INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE, a co-production of One Dance Festival.

After the world premiere in Plovdiv, Toplocentrala becomes the stage for a performance in which four dancers flicker between eerie stillness and explosive motion, channeling the chaotic energy of fighter games into a physical space. As in a game, but also really, they will face each other, but also themselves, while the audience will choose to become their ally, opponent or judge. With every move, the dancers ask: where do we end, and where does our collective online experience begin?

INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE is an electrifying deep dive into the virtual subconscious, where dance, theatre, and gaming collide. In this immersive performance by Karakashyan & Artists, the stage transforms into a live-streamed digital playground, alive with NPCs (non-playable characters), quests, and the ghostly echoes of online worlds.

At its core, INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE is a game you don’t just watch, you play. Blurring the boundaries between player and spectator, the performance thrusts its audience into a surreal, interactive space where choice becomes choreography, and action shapes the narrative. Equal parts spectacle and reflection, the performance is a thrilling reminder that the digital worlds we escape to are also mirrors, revealing the identities we construct.

Concept & Choreography: Kosta Karakashyan
Dancers & Choreographic Collaborators: Nelly Georgieva, Emiliya Toncheva, Bilyana Tsolova, Aleksandar Gochev
Composer: Martina Stefanova
Costume Design: The Trackers
Set Design: Ada Paunova
Light Design: Sava Kisiov
Game Design Consultant: Alexander Torofiev
Associate Producer: Yana Stefanova
Assistant Choreographer: Iskra Daskalova
Production: Karakashyan & Artists
Co-Producer: One Dance Festival

With the support of the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria under the Creation Grant, Collab 4 HY Sustain CCI, an innovation incubation project supported by the European Union, and the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria.