'Theatre of Life' is a deceptively dystopian short story that lightly explores the condition of living and our own perceptions of it. The thing that I like about this particular short story is just how much world building is crammed into such a short time. Everything here is deliberate, from the saccharine and overtly bright colors of the simple art, to the almost annoyingly storybook music, and then you get a glimpse of the illusion breaking, the way that more detailed and rendered sprites appear to show the reader that this is one of those stories where the character's perception itself is warped. It makes the reader contemplate large ideas like pursuing happiness, the nature of existence, and questions if all the different ways of biohacking our minds and bodies to the point of literally manufacturing happiness is the right thing to do. It poses a question of, "if we reach a point of 'solving' the struggles of life, can it even be called living anymore?" This is one of those wildly compelling concepts where you could really dig into it and create a full on epic with exploring Chappy as he moves through this world and grapples with the illusion. As a stand alone experience, this is really really good. It feels like an amuse bouche to what could be a much larger experience. Whether you decide to pursue that or not is up to you, but I think this is one of those concepts that feels particularly relevant and poignant in our current society.