Only Three Will Survive

Only Three Will Survive
Theater	The Institution Theater
Directed by	Asaf Ronen
Assistant Director(s)	Allison Asher
Cast	Tyler Booker Kathy Rose Center Megan Moten Taylor Overstreet Heidi Rogers David Rosenbaum Lacy Shawn Luke Wallens Wyatt Tall Ruby Willmann
Crew	Cindy Page
Run	Jul/Aug 2012

Only Three Will Survive (often written with a trailing ellipsis: Only Three Will Survive...) was a mainstage show at The Institution Theater.

Summary

The show was a narrative improv that took place in and around an audience-suggested location. The cast of characters united in that space would suffer through a series of tragic disasters until only three remained.

The host, played by Asaf Ronen, was vaguely demonic, and sat behind the kind of table you would find in a store-front psychic's parlor. He dealt out tarot cards, one for each player that night, from the major arcana: The Fool, The Emperor, The Empress, The Lovers, The Heirophant, The Magician, The Hermit, The Devil, The Hanged Man. As each card was dealt, the characters stepped out (their order also random) and introduced themselves and their connection to the location through a three-line monologue.

Then the play began, showing this cross-section of people going about their routines. At about 30 minutes in, the first bell rang, and the host would step forward, this time with two decks of cards on his table. One deck was the tarot archetypes; the other deck was a series of possible disasters ranging from "hurricane" to "plague" to "the rapture" to "hyper-smart sharks" and more. An audience member picked from each of the deck, inadvertently deciding which character has just died and which disaster they perished from. That character delivered a parting monologue, not knowing how they died until it was announced to them halfway through their speech.

This continued a few times through the evening. Sometimes more than one character card would be pulled simultaneously.

Media

Photos

• Photoset by Claudio Fox of the 8/3/12 performance.
• A photoset by Michael Yew of the 8/17/12 performance.
  • Another photoset by Claudio Fox of the same performance.

More Information

• The show's facebook page.