by guest critic Amy Toledano

Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World is an interactive whirlwind full of games, quests and phone calls. When we meet Amy she tells us about the time her Dad bought her her first gaming console, a second-hand Nintendo Entertainment System, and how it changed her life.

Conway spends the first section of the show explaining the benefits of gaming and breaking the stigma around gamers. Through examples and statistics she makes it clear that people who play and enjoy video games on a regular basis reap a load of benefits.

As an audience, we participate in many games to help Amy on her quest, with the help of her spirit guide that floats on the TV screen on stage. As the play progresses however, we learn this piece is not all fun and games. Amy has deeper issues bubbling under the surface that she needs to face in order to complete her journey.

This show takes me totally by surprise and thanks to an intimate audience makes me feel like I was apart of a little team helping fight bad guy bosses and rescue the princess. It helps me face things I didn’t expect to be facing – mainly myself.

Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World runs through 25 February.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.