Review of “Fight Night”: The election is a stage, the candidates, the actors (in the truest sense of the word) | Art

Every American presidential election brings with it a time of great dismay over one's own voters and their inscrutable political decisions. “Fight Night,” an interactive campaign theater experience from Belgian theater company Ontroerend Goed, came to the U.S. at just the right time to explore the psyche of future voters. The show ran September 20-21 at the Emerson Paramount Center in Boston and is now on its way to Ann Arbor, MI, as the next stop on a seven-state tour.

Fight Night questioned many aspects of the democratic system and made audiences think more deeply about the power of their fellow voters and their own decision-making processes. But its 75-minute running time was not enough to develop nuance: Vague characterization and plot construction undermined the show's message of voter empowerment, and perhaps the most important takeaway was a greater distrust of fellow voters than ever before.

During the show, five candidates competed in rounds of voting and elimination, punctuated by questions from the moderator – a figure reminiscent of a debate moderator – and tricks he used, such as vote pooling. Plot details were sparse; the audience was not electing a new president or congressman, but simply voting for the sake of voting.

Using small remote controls that collected live multiple-choice votes, “Fight Night” periodically displayed voting breakdowns that kept the audience on their toes with predictions and reactions. The fast pace coupled with interesting questions for candidates and voters meant that not a moment of the 75-minute runtime felt dull.

The questions asked of the candidates were rather abstract. The program for Fight Night promised to omit political statements (for example, stances on issues such as abortion or the economy), and for good reason—it's hard to believe that Boston theatergoers are a very politically diverse group, which would threaten a predictable show. Fight Night also addressed this problem by collecting demographic data from the start (the opening night numbers included a percentage of upper class and atheists), which created an awareness of voter background when interpreting the answers.

However, the candidates' unclear political stances meant that there was a distance between the audience and the competition throughout the show. Fight Night wanted to keep its candidates complex and the election full of surprises, but in doing so it inadvertently exposed the manipulation behind the supposedly audience-controlled storyline. While one candidate's move from least popular to frontrunner thoughtfully relied on the emotional appeal of an underdog, another's rise depended on people voting for his anonymized personal values ​​that his character had never embodied at all. As a result, a comment on the deceptive appearances felt like a gimmicky twist.

In a production that resembles a social experiment, some statistical validity problems were inevitable. Fight Night fended off expectations of rigorous science by emphasizing some aspects of theater, including dramatic monologues. But since none of the actors were as charismatic or convincing as the greatest actors in American politics, Fight Night conveyed the emotional tension of a local election rather than a presidential election. The film could have benefited from naturalistic improvisational acting, especially since one of its best assets was the comedic host, played by Angelo Tijssens.

Most of the voting results suggested several conclusions: Were voters easily fooled by authoritarian regimes or were they complicit in a senseless system? Were they clinging to the status quo or did they remain true to their principles? To gain more satisfying insights, statistics from studies on biases and heuristics could have added an insightful and educational element to the program.

Despite its flaws, Fight Night was heartbreaking in its dramatic conclusion, leaving audiences questioning both the integrity of the candidates and the judgment of their fellow voters. With a final message about the power of the majority – for better or for worse – Fight Night gave moviegoers plenty to think about and worry about in the run-up to the presidential election.

“Fight Night” ran from September 20 to 21 at the Emerson Paramount Center.

—Editor Isabelle Lu can be reached at [email protected].