Two old friends. One big ask.

Filmed covertly (and safely) over four nights in a Las Vegas hotel room during the global pandemic, The Mirror Game is the story of a friendship pushed to its limits. Childhood friends Rose and Abe both find themselves in Las Vegas on the same weekend, but when Rose asks Abe for a life-changing favor, the evening takes a turn for the unexpected, and the two spend the night trying to beat the odds.

Director William J. Stribling

Director's Statement:

The Mirror Game began as a challenge to ourselves as filmmakers. In 2020, I had two other feature films get put on hold due to the pandemic. But by August 1, I was going stir crazy and was desperately looking for a project that could be done quickly, cheaply, but also safely.

So we rehearsed for about a month with the actors, snuck gear into a Las Vegas hotel room, and shot the entire thing over the course of 5 nights with a barebones crew. It turned out to be one of the most intense and rewarding experiences of my career.

The Mirror Game is an adaptation of the play "A Mere Competition" by Marissa Flaxbart, and the original stagings took place inside of a hotel room. An audience of about 20 people would spend about 80 minutes with no intermission trapped inside of the room with the two actors, watching the story play out in real-time.

My idea for turning the play into a film embraced the approach to the play. Trap us in a room with these two characters and make it as intimate as possible.