An immersive theatre experience co-created between Bristol and Canada

This collaboration came about when Ruthie Luff and I met in Toronto just before the pandemic hit and changed virtually everything. We had started to explore the idea of our companies making something together, initially sketching out concepts that might be simple, something beautifully self-contained, something that would serve as a model for how an immersive company in Canada and one in the UK could dream up and deliver a show together.

This is not what happened.

Pandemic hit. We had envisaged trying to get our teams together to start a stage 1 R&D to explore possible narratives and story worlds but with lockdowns, our conversations and explorations shifted into the Zoom realm. This was incredibly problematic as we tried to dream up, over 24 months, an idea with two sets of artists, technologists and designers who were 5 hours and an ocean apart. Zoom is not your friend when you are trying to fit 12 people into a computer screen and the natural flowing creative debate becomes something you no longer recognise.

By the time we applied for the Here+There R&D funding the idea had grown substantially – it was no longer a toddler of an idea but had matured into a somewhat rampaging teenager. Our something simple had turned into something more complex and layered, but all the more compelling for both companies. We had vital lessons we wanted to learn from each other. This became a fundamental tenet for our collaboration, both having experience that they could share - Lost & Gone had not worked with technology before and Raucous had not worked at the scale that Lost & Gone operated at (productions for over 500 people at a time). The teams we had built had very different advanced skills sets so we knew knowledge transfer was going to be a driver and we each had partners who would be excited by our collaboration and who would offer support.

Our something simple had turned into something more complex and layered, but all the more compelling for both companies. We had vital lessons we wanted to learn from each other.

What we proposed for Here+There was a stage 2 prototyping and skills exchange programme for an immersive theatre piece that was durational through the use of audience onboarding and offboarding, telling a fable using object-based technology, original music score, binaural sound, AR, AI and live performance. The immersive story we wanted to explore using these tools was that of Doria Sharpe, a notorious female whaler who was marooned on a derelict lighthouse on a tiny windswept island that sat in the Atlantic exactly mid-point between Newfoundland and the SW coast of England.

In response to the mounting climate catastrophe, we were keen to explore how theatre might build new international touring models where sets and companies did not have to fly to new audiences and where the processes of creating also harnessed minimum physical movement between two countries. This resulted in our exploring synchronized immersive theatre – the show would take place at the same time in Toronto and Bristol and, despite the time difference, the audience would ‘see’ each in a perception of conjoined liveness. And, if we could, also ‘gift’ each other a physical object.

The funding allowed for some proof-of-concept prototyping. Raucous is known for its object based media – objects that are given to the audience that respond physically to a moment in the plot. We knew from early on that we wanted these to be miniature whalebones, worn by the audience and that, when placed on the jawbone, would broadcast whalesong, audience invitations and added narrative moments. We knew that we wanted the story to start in the home two or three days before the live performance and this would be delivered through AR, AI and binaural sound and that the narrative would be completed 2 days after the performance using these tools. We knew the world we wanted to build and we knew that we wanted music and aroma to be our corridor into our immersive story world.

During the funding period we built and tested the AR and binaural sound, built a prototype of the whalebones, designed the immersive set, started composition of the musical motifs and themes, wrote a draft script , developed an aesthetic manifesto and started to work with performers on realising key moments of the narrative.

We worked separately in the main but organised a two week ‘sprint’ where the team from Canada came to the UK to try putting together all the elements we had been working on and to see if our ideas would dovetail into a cohesive whole. We did this during the hottest 2 weeks the UK has ever experienced.

So what are the lessons we will take away?

• A partnership agreement between us is required but difficult to build as both countries’ funding systems work differently. Canada can charge much more for the experience than the UK but we can access state subsidy. So, what is the business model? How do we build it? How do we maintain it?
• We had to stop and remember to identify, negotiate and manage each other’s creative expectations and ambitions so we remained respectful of them.
• We are inventing and designing creative and business processes as we go along. This can be frustrating and time-consuming requiring sustained funding to make any headway which is a challenge in both climates.
• Creative collaboration is complex when taking place remotely. The right technology by which we can be in a making space together remotely that is easily accessible and affordable seems to allude us. Zoom is not it.
• Constant evaluation and learning capture is key because we are learning all the time - some of those lessons are hard and need to be registered to inform future processes.
• Milestones. Discussed. Agreed on. What do you want to achieve? By when?
• Clear, concise, informal modes of communication with a system of regular meetings between the creative executive. Email can be fraught with misunderstandings and we banned it for any collaborative communication apart from document sharing.
• That ‘critical friends’ are vital - do not feel too proud to ask for help from those with the skills you may not have.
• That showing iterations of our creative ideas and technology at regular stages with audiences garner the most learning, especially if we provide them with a sketchbook of what it might feel like.
• This thing takes more time than you think.
• This thing takes more money than you think.

BUT

• We are still excited by what we have dreamt up.
• We still think the team is the right team.
• The investigations we are making still push us forward.
• We still admire each other’s cultures and outputs.
• We think this is the right partnership for this project.
• We know this may not work exactly as we figure it right now but we are driven to give it a try.

I just want to end this with saying a massive thank you to the Here+There R&D team who were so so SO patient, who laughed regularly with us, who held a space and place that put no pressure on our ideas and who just geared everything to the learning and the collaboration. It was a rare gift to be part of such a funding culture.

If you want to know more we’re happy to answer any questions or comments.

sharon@raucous.org.uk

Sharon Clark is an award-winning playwright/dramaturg and the Creative Director of Raucous. She has worked with Bristol Old Vic, National Theatre, RSC, Arcola, Theatre 503, Sherman Cymru, Manchester Royal Exchange and the Akram Khan Company. She has been a fellow in digital, immersive theatre with SWCTN, Bath+Bristol Creative R+D Creative Clusters and RSC/Magic Leap, and is a senior lecturer at UWE.

Head to Raucous' website to see more of the project.

Image Credit: Jon Aitken

Watch the project summary