The odd connection between The Sims 4 and A24’s Past Lives

Even if you aren’t familiar with her work as a staff writer on Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time, director Celine Song — whose directorial feature debut, The Past Lives, hits wide release this week — might spark with you for a different reason. Back in 2020, in partnership with the New York Theatre Workshop, Song made the news for staging a production of Anton Chekhov’s classic play SeagullWithin a Sims Game

Appropriately subtitled The Sims 4 – The SeagullThe virtual production lasted two evenings, or six hours, in October 2020. Including those who viewed the archival footage, which was hosted on Song’s Twitch page for some time, close to 10,000 people watched this innovative staging.

Celine Song playing The Sims 4 as the characters of The Seagull

The show happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when live performances weren’t possible in person, so the theater world had to innovate. Song was inspired by the world of video games.

“My little sister is a video game designer, so I kind of know the video game world,” Song told Polygon. “I was watching a lot of Twitch, a lot of live video game playing — streamers — during COVID. [Streaming] is like a durational live performance.”

Song was particularly compelled by how long streams can be, and how streamers often ad-lib what they’re talking about and adapt to what’s going on in chat or their environment. The production is based around Seagull wasn’t just a staging streamed via Zoom, but a full process involving casting (character creation) and directing (audience participation in the chat), as Song guided her Sims to enact the events of Seagull.

Song chose the life-simulation video game before she even decided on what to create. Her favorite Sims generation was The Sims 2.., where the Chemistry System makes for especially compelling relationships). The latest installment of the franchise was an obvious place to perform her favorite Chekhov’s play.

“Sims 4 I always felt, was very Chekhovian as a game,” says Song. “Because it’s about just living, right? It’s about drama between people, and also just like Chekhov, you have to go to the bathroom. […] There’s an interesting thing where it really is about the really extraordinary things that are happening in the mundane [lives of the characters].”

Nora and Hae Sung on the subway, staring at each other as they hold the center pole.

Sims has always been about storytelling, highlighting everyday details. And while Song’s debut directorial feature, The Past Lives, isn’t specifically related to the video game franchise, she certainly emphasizes the mundane moments in the lives of her protagonists, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo).

The Past Lives follows the two former friends, across three separate eras in their lives, considering the impact they had on each other and how they’ve grown as people over the course of decades. The Sims’ most memorable moments can be found in the game. The Past Lives come from small, everyday details — from the ringing of a Skype call when Nora and Hae Sung reconnect to the reflection in a hotel window on a rainy day.

Reflections are used throughout the film. A lot of shots are seen through mirrors, windows and other reflective surfaces. It almost feels like the audience is peeking in from another reality — or a past life. It’s a choice Song says was essential to the language of the film, for a reason that connects Sims games and Chekhov’s work.

“The movie is about the way that life reflects upon itself,” she tells Polygon.

The Past LivesContinues its theatrical launch and enters wide release June 23.

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