#ItWasGreekToMe

Production URL (chatbot Facebook)

Producers Note

#ItWasGreekToMe is a digital retelling of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare for the social media-driven world. A world where millennials are in charge of Rome. Senators are the stars, influencers and entrepreneurs of the day.

Produced by Jason O’Leary, Faculty of Arts, the University of Melbourne as a transmedia, immersive, digital experience exploring how technology can be used to tell a 400-year-old story by William Shakespeare. Using messenger chats, texts and social streaming video where the dialogue by Shakespeare is not edited but presented in a way we experience the world today.

Taking inspiration from wiki leaks, whistleblowers, CCTV government surveillance, and celebrities and politicians’ insatiable appetite for baring all on social media, #ItWasGreekToMe tells the story of Brutus, Cassius, Antony and Caesar. Told through 43 different digital assets drip-fed through Facebook messenger via a chatbot over three days.

The audience is also able to explore the world through a pop-up VR experience; RVR Tiber Water, run by Mark Antony as a way to promote his side of the story. The production also deploys a game; Bottle Dash (on iTunes and Google Play) where new content can be unlocked that supports Mark Antony’s cause. The audience can slip between online and offline to experience the story world.

The production makes us question what we do when presented with the truth, in an era of fake news and the 24hr news cycle.

#ItWasGreekToMe can be explored free online: https://m.me/ItWasGreekToMe

Jason O’Leary
Producer
January 2019

Press Release

Unimelb Newsroom - Social Shakespeare chatbot meets Julius Caesar

Assets

Abdul
Download Image

IMAGE CREDIT: Still from #ItWasGreekToMe Abdul Muhaimin 3^rd year Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne as Mark Antony