Proficiency Test is an interactive experience set in a satirical/dystopic alternate present. The situation is laid out in a brilliantly executed corporate promo video, shot by Jack O’Donnell and featuring Andrew Clarke and Jessica Old. 

The backstory goeth thus: after the 2008 financial meltdown, New Zealand is divided into a number of corporate-run city states, including the financial rivals SuperCity Inc and the Wellington and Cook Strait region’s CapiTEL Corporation. You are applying for a social media marketing job with CapiTEL. 

You will be given a series of tests to mimic your job functions (administered by host and authority figure Andy), and scores are tracked throughout the night, with the participants moving to new computer stations as a way to track how far or close each is to getting that precious job. 

Throughout the evening, the upbeat market-speak of the CapiTEL brand team is undermined by emails from HR updating participants on ‘unexpected’ developments throughout the CapiTEL corporate area.  A mysterious figure known only as ‘Getti the Yeti’ actively disrupts the positive pushiness of your hosts by encouraging participants to question and disrupt the planned tests. 

There are two possible games to play: you can compete for the job itself, or you can commit to the game of gathering the information that CapiTEL doesn’t want you to have. The second setup reminds me of my favourite video games: The Stanley Parable, Portal, and Thomas Was Alone, in which the characters are playing against the game itself. 

Our group is pretty split on which game to play; of the 6 of us, 1 is clearly bent on getting the job, another is willing to play that game but clearly unsure about CapiTEL as a company, 2 are on the verge of rioting and finding Yeti right then and there, and the rest fall somewhere in between. 

It is these tensions, as we vie for different types of conflicting accomplishment, that get me most interested throughout the evening. Sure, there’s a plot, but I don’t really give a crap about the pre-planned events. The competition and gameplay, though, that’s interesting. 

The creators have also set themselves a pretty tricky task in setting up the rules and rewards of the evening.  When you set up the rules of a performance by having them introduced by an authority figure, then deliberately encourage the participants to undermine that authority figure, some participants (like me) will assume that means that those early rules go out the window. 

An early example in my evening includes an anonymous audience member figuring out the email formula used for all the participants and trying to incite a riot.  It’s a tool I’m not sure the designers meant to give the participants.  I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was a bold design decision that was meant to give participants a way to communicate with each other while the authority figure is in the room.  However, it makes that job of enforcing the rules of the game trickier.

As part of the ‘getting the job’ game, we are trained in an uncannily accurate way of dealing with phone calls by seeming incredibly helpful while simply transferring the call from one dis-empowered operator to the next.  The results are familiar to anyone who has been stuck in phone tree customer service hell. 

Overall, the corporate satire in this show is pretty spot-on, and I’m totally impressed. 

When it comes to the information that undermines the corporation, however, I wish the world were deeper with this show. I’m a pretty rubbish spy, but I get the impression that I hit the limits of the available information pretty quickly in the experience.  The information goes 2 or 3 layers deep, but I find myself wishing it went 5 or 6 layers down. 

Overall in the evening, I feel like the rewards – both for playing along with and for undermining the corporation – are a bit weak.  I’d like to know more about what happened to Jess, for example, for taking the risk of digging for information I’m not meant to have.  Or maybe meet the person above Andy on the corporate ladder as a reward for being the best at the proficiency test, and get a chance to learn something confidential about this really really interesting world. 

Still, these are questions of pushing what is already some pretty strong work further.  And there are some nice touches in the evening, such as the formula used for determining the original points tying into the world’s class structure and a game of pass-the-parcel, which, far from being random, totally reinforces the nascent points order of the ‘getting the job’ game.

The evening is completely interactive – and the most interesting moments always come from what the other people in the room are doing, so I’d recommend getting a group of friends together and going.

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