PBJ

• PBJ – The Musical is a surreal take on Shakespeare, mixed with a musical and sandwiches
• Follow the journey of a star-crossed strawberry and peanut
• Guide the story yourself or let it play out automatically

When it comes to theatre, it seems it’s all been done. Whether that’s to shock, or offend, the medium struggles to stand out. So what better way to keep it fresh than to take it to the digital realm? And what better orientation to take than to ditch shock and melodrama in favour of utter surrealness?

So what actuallyis PBJ – The Musical? Well, in short, it’s a quirky handmade mobile release that sees you making your way through a somewhat restructured version of the classic Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet by way of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich combo. Hitting iPhone and iPad on March 26th, it lets you either guide the story yourself or see it play out automatically.

Oh, and that story? Comes through the form of ten musical acts, handmade stop-motion animation, voice-acting of amateur Shakespeare and your own input by dragging and dropping story elements to provide a distinctive rendition each time. Guide a star-crossed pair of lovers in the form of a peanut and strawberry through this bizarre take on classic theatre.

Eat your crusts

So yes, when I say quirky I very much mean it in this case. And I reckon just how well you like, or tolerate, quirkiness will depend on whether you want to play PBJ – The Musical. I don’t deny it looks as if there’s a lot of effort that’s gone into this upcoming release, so I’m certainly intrigued to see how well PBJ – The Musical is received by players when it hits iOS on March 26th.

Speaking of musicals, did you know that there’s more than one recent musical release on mobile? Yes, Adventures of a Cat in Space is a bit like PBJ – The Musical, although instead of a new take on Shakespeare it concentrates on, well, a cat that gets stranded in space.