Only Slime

In this computer game opera, the interdisciplinary duo Only Slime play two 3D avatars on a surreal quest for meaning in a simulated underworld. The performers navigate their avatars through landscapes inspired by Dante’s “Inferno”, or games like “Half-Life” and “Final Fantasy”.

“An explosive mix of opera and hyperpop, where ambient black metal and game mechanic create a haunting vision of life after death.” Sebastian Fongen Langslet at periskop.no

“Afterlife” is a full-length computer game opera developed by the interdisciplinary arts and music duo Only Slime, consisting of Tobi Pfeil and Claudia Cox. The opera questions life after death and the meaning of life, playfully combining elements from Greek mythology, contemporary internet-culture, simulation theory, AI-generated material and computer-game storytelling techniques in an operatic form that is both fun, thought-provoking and transgressive in its combination of music, technology and live performance.

Using real-time motion tracking and hyperpop-inspired autotune vocals with electronics, two performers on stage control two avatars in a game engine on their existential search for meaning and purpose – as we follow them on their descent into death and non-existence.

Transgressive and interdisciplinary by nature, Only Slime evades labels and genres in their search for new forms of expression and storytelling in the contemporary music, performance and arts scene. Combining their background in punk, classical music, computer games, free jazz, acrobatics, hyperpop, experimental theatre, electronic music production and film, the duo seeks a playful limitlessness through vastly different mediums and artistic modes of expressions.

Press:
“Afterlife is playful, magical, well-executed, and thought-provoking. We feel empathy for the fragile digitzal beings onstage. This is an excepiotnally original and bold work by pfeil and Cox, who demonstrate full command of every aspect of the theatrical medium,” Jury statement, Norsk Komponistforening Winner of the Work of the Year 2025

“Psychic”. Tormassy, Det Norske Teatret.