Our setting is characterised by the contrast between normality and the absurdity of the demonic. Scenes where patients read the newspaper, play chess, drink some coffee, ask for more butter on their toast. At the same time, a demon sits on the floor and licks a possessed human on the arm. In the sofa, a demon is violent towards another demon. A third demon has taken control of their possessed human and is trying to make the participants in the group therapy session hate themselves. No one comments on the fact that there are chains with bloody hooks hanging from the ceiling.
The larp is neither cosy, scary or hysterical. The atmosphere is more about lying in a corner behind the bed and crying, comforted by a demon who says it will always be there for you. We call it a relationship drama with supernatural and grim elements.
The story is fluid. Everything has been mixed up in the traumatized minds of the patients, whose memories have been taken from them. This creates a freedom for players to improvise memories and events in the past, where details and truths are subjective and temporary. Background stories don’t have to fit together, things can be redefined, changed, added or subtracted. Together, the players create a few highly personal and emotional connections, where memories and causal relationships are improvised when necessary.
Key words
Intimate
Intimate duos with close-knit play. Patient and demon characters are bound together in a deeply personal connection, and the players create play for each other.
Physical
Closeness between patient and demon, the staff’s handling of agitated patients, touch between patient characters, and between demon and patient characters.
Artistic
The characters live and move through the ever changing aesthetic of the play venue, to reflect the absurdity of the demonic presence.
Emotional
A connection created by actions or emotions will remain when order and details have been forgotten. Patients gradually remember their past.
Improvised
Co-creative, imaginative play where spontaneity trumps coherence, rationality or logic. Encouraged use of a separate black box.
Longing
Distance, emotional isolation from other people, unfamiliar feelings and emotions.
The patients are possessed by demons. We are not looking for a realistic portrayal of mental illness. We want to avoid the feeling that you have to make a credible presentation of something so difficult, or that it appears that the larp is carelessly toying around with serious subjects. Participants should not have to do a lot of research.
Patients
The patient character play involves physical closeness with one’s demon in a form of dependence or addiction, like a controlling lover, family member or friend. At the same time, the demon isolates their human from the other patients, whom they need to actually become free. Patient characters can interact directly with other patients, the staff and their demon, but not with other demons at the beginning of the larp.
Demons
By playing demon you have great freedom to create play, especially with your partnered patient but also with the other demon characters. The demon characters can possess their human and together with other demons create hallucinations and dream-like scenes. The demon players can contribute to the absurd and demonic aesthetic of reality. Demon characters can interact with their human and other demons, but not with staff characters. Later in the game, they may interact with other patients.
Staff
The staff characters are partly instructed and the players sign up individually. These characters move freely in the larp, but are limited to no interaction with the demons and the supernatural. They represent the normal and stable. The staff characters establish connections with the patients through conversations and art therapy. They ensure calm, order and routines on the ward. The staff can interact directly with the patients and other staff, but not with the demons.