“Hi everyone, just to let you know, I’ve
been cast in an immersive show and I’m heading off to Edinburgh in
August”
“Brilliant!” “Congratulations!” “Well done!”
“Exciting!”
“What is an immersive show?”
Ah.
Yes. Exactly. What is an immersive show? After two weeks of R&D I think I can now
answer that question.
Immersive theatre is the thing
at the moment. With the huge success of
companies such as Secret Cinema, dining opportunities like The Fawlty
Towers Dining Experience and the current birthday party phenomenon that is
escape rooms – the audience for immersive work is huge. Audiences are looking for a thrill. An up-close experience. Something a little different.
My go-to for definitions is usually
Google/Wikipedia. In this case “immersive”
is lumped in with “interactive theatre” with Wikipedia saying “...immersive
theatre, which brings the audience into the same playing space as the
performers, obliterating any walls that separate the audience from the
performers”
I’m
working with the fabulous Flabbergast Theatre on their immersive production “The Swell Mob”. We’ve had an immensely fun couple of weeks, spending our days running and rolling around the
floors of a church, screaming into the vaulted ceiling during the longest
British heatwave in 40 years. It’s been
sweaty. But also, incredibly
freeing. It’s a real gift for an actor
be told “...this is a safe space, there’s
no right or wrong answer, just try it...”
and to know that that is genuinely true. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being
surrounded by a diverse group of incredibly creative, fearless performers.
The Swell Mob has been devised by us, the cast. Henry Maynard and Jordan Chandler, our
directors, have always had a detailed and clear vision for the piece but have
invited us to bring ideas and characters to the table. And creating a character has been a lot of
fun.
In a
production where you have a script, a lot of the character work has been done
for you. Every actor will bring
themselves and their own unique take on a character to a production (otherwise
why would we be interested in seeing different actors play Hamlet or Lady
Bracknell) but you’ve usually got a strong starting point from the playwright. When creating a character from scratch, all the
decisions are yours. It’s a lot of work.
There’s a great deal of play and editing. Putting your character in an improvised
scenario is one of the most helpful ways to develop them. How do they react to their surroundings? How do they interact with other people? If asked questions, how much do they give
away about themselves – how open are they?
Do they lie? What makes them
laugh? Do they believe in God?
For the
actors in The Swell Mob there is
going to be a lot of improvisation at every performance because with an
immersive show you really have to factor in the audience. And every audience is different. Any performer will tell you – you could be in
a long run of a well-known show and every performance and audience will differ
because we are all human and how we react will vary from person to person, day
to day. And that’s what makes live
theatre interesting and engaging. In a
live immersive show, if I go up to and introduce myself to one person, they may
want to have a chat while another may back off in terror. This is something I’m really looking forward
to. But to cope with this I have to know
my character inside out because every interaction will be different and every
audience member deserves to meet a well-rounded, believable person.
And so,
as I pack for Edinburgh (a seemingly unseasonably warm Edinburgh, will I even
use my umbrella?) I think about HER
and how she’d pack for Edinburgh.
Because, you never know, someone may just ask me.
TICKETS: https://www.assemblyfestival.com/whats-on/the-swell-mob
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