Hamênânl Gžata
Hamênânl Gžata (Viewer's Story) or Hagžata is a type of interactive stage play performed on the island of Hapšâw, usually by touring theater groups. Over the course of the play the protagonist or protagonists will be met with a decision, and ask the audience to choose, either by voting or by selecting a single viewer to pick the answer.
History
The first Hagžata play is usually considered to be "My Love, I Miss You", first performed in Tokšahalna in 41 TT. The play takes place before Kapa Hapšâw's rise to power and tells the story of Yonal, the leader of a fishermen tribe, who's wife (Hoši) is kidnapped by a rivaling tribe. The story end's with Yonal either sneaking in and saving his wife, leading a full assault and massacring the population of the other tribe, allying himself with his wife's captors in return for her freedom or drowning himself in the sea, depending on the choices of the audience. The play features a total of 32 choices for the audience to make, an impressive number even by modern standards. The play's writer, Miñagl stated that the interactive structure of his play was a result of him wanting to give the audience a reason to see it more than once. Though the play was criticized by contemporary writers for being "low brow" and "appealing to the simple man" it nevertheless proved incredibly successful, and spawned many copycats, leading to the creation of the genre. "My Love, I Miss You" is still regarded as one of the best Hagžata plays.
Due to them often being performed by touring theater groups, Hagžatas quickly spread to most parts of the island, commonly appearing both in the smaller towns located inland and in the big cities, with there even being reports of them being performed on boats to tribes of fishermen. Usually a group will have several plays available to choose by the audience, which then needs to pay for each show. Oftentimes the audience will request the same play be performed twice or more times in a row, so that they can see where different choices would lead. This leads to some lower quality plays having a lot of inconsequential choices which offer little to no new dialog or story upon repeated viewings of the play.
Modern Times
The art form is still very popular among all of the island. In the big cities there are usually at least two groups staying in the city. Additionally a permanent Hamênânl Gžata theater is located in the north part of Tokšahalna. The constuction plans for Habžil'l Yamitân include a similar theater, but the building is yet to be constructed.
A modern innovation employed by some of the more prestigious groups is the inclusion of improvised segments, usually performed by asking the audience an open ended question.
With the introduction of printing to Hapšâw, a lot of the plays have become available to purchase as books, with the choices being performed by turning to a specific page of the book. Though these existed before the printing press they were expensive to produce, and mostly used by the actors to help with memorizing the lines. Several of the plays, including "My Love, I Miss You" have been translated into other languages.