‘Life is experience, Story is structure’ Says Jan Pinkava, writer, and co-director of Pixar’s Ratatouille. The new world of theater is trying to merge immersive entertainment and narrative. What can we learn?
I read that we as a society are eager now than ever to isolate or ‘wall garden’ ourselves into engagements or entertainments, away from this madding World. You can blame this on extreme politics, divisive dialogues, unnatural enthusiasm to share or partake in disgust for the times we live in, on television and social media. It also helps that technology has moved on from that Pong game with two bars and a square bouncing across the screen to immersive games in VR headsets for your phone. The audience used to such reality demand autonomy – ‘can I experience it the way I want to?’. The immersive theater offers them just that.
Imagine a four-storied warehouse converted into a walk-in theater. You are deemed a ‘ghost’, wearing a mask and walking through rooms of action and narratives played out by actors. You can stop, open drawers, walk closer to read a paper in an actor’s hand or even be led by an actor into a special chamber. But you cannot talk or interact. This is what happens in ‘Sleep no more’ – a play(?) produced by Punchdrunk from the United Kingdom playing in New York now. Watch this promotional video.
,
Source: Shiva Chronicles