voidspace dispatches, July 2024: nightmares, manikins and digital ghosts
interactive arts
First of all, we at the voidspace would like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who came along to voidspace live 2024, at Theatre Deli in early June. It was massively exciting to see so many people come together from all corners of the interactive arts world to share experiences, play and come away so genuinely enthused. Friend of the void Neil Willcox has written a review of the day.
This month’s dispatches hover between the past and the future. Our play at home experience, 2019’s User Not Found, looks back to an iconic piece of site specific interactive work from Dante or Die (whose latest show begins this month). At the same time, we look very much to the future of the form, as we take a deep dive into the techniques used to create the nightmare-infused world of Deadweight Theatre’s The Manikins: A Work in Progress
The listings section is also future forward, as we include a bumper crop of updates, as the summer festival season approaches. Tick tock - the future’s looking bright!
voidspace at home
interactive arts to experience at your own pace
voidspace in conversation:
This month we welcome Deadweight Theatre’s Jack Aldisert into the voidspace to talk about nightmares, why interactive theatre lends itself so well to expressing the Weird, and the process behind his new solo-participant show, voidspace favourite The Manikins: A Work in Progress
Read previous voidspace conversations with other friends of the void, including Jury Games, Unwired Dance, Nick Murray, Leo Doulton and Chloe Mashiter.
voidspace live: review
A Sunday Afternoon at Voidspace Live: Friend of the void Neil Wilcox reviews voidspace live 2024 (in association with Theatre Deli - a one day festival of interactive arts.
Play at home experiences
User Not Found by Dante or Die A video podcast based on the 2019 show of the same name
What happens to your digital life after your death? If there was a magic button, would you choose to delete your online history? USER NOT FOUND explores the ethics of digital ownership, public and private grief and shifting notions of connection and community.
USER NOT FOUND is an immersive video podcast about what happens to our online identities after we die.
For this new digital adaptation of the 2018/19 critically acclaimed live show, Dante or Die created a virtual site-specific world. Charge your phone, plug in your headphones and find a quiet space for this intimate, meditative and funny story of one man grappling with something deeply private.
Multi-award winning, and for good reason. Content warnings for death, loss, grief and social media
voidspace explores
interactive arts listings
July 2024
The Manikins: A Work in Progress - An hourlong performance by two actors for you, its single audience member and protagonist. Innovative and mind boggling, this is the voidspace’s favourite interactive show for some time. Read the voidspace’s conversation with Deadweight’s Jack Aldisert here
CRYPT, London
Until 13 July 2024
Inside Odds On by Dante or Die - Dante or Die will create a unique free pop-up experience on your local high street. For two weeks only, the critically acclaimed theatre makers will be transforming an empty shop into a mesmerising, immersive underwater betting shop with Inside Odds On.
Derby: 8 - 20 July
Harlow: 12 - 24 August
Wolverhampton - September
Rochdale - October
Lincoln - October
Roll for Initiative: The Wizard’s Tower - Luna Attic presents Roll for Initiative: The Wizard’s Tower Gaming meets theatre In this live, interactive, playable RPG experience. Roll for Initiative crosses the world of gaming with theatre bringing live, immersive, Interactive experiences for audiences to play. Using suggestions, character creation, dice rolls and more, no two shows are the same.
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
25 July 2024
Lennox Mutual by Candle House Collective - Welcome to Lennox Mutual: a Life En-surance company, here to help you make the most of the time you have. We offer policies – to get yours, all you have to do is make an appointment.
For more information, book a one-on-one phone session. Our live representatives are trained to make you feel, make you think, and of course, make you smile. You’ve never experienced service like ours.
Online
Until 8 September 2024
Bridge Command - Fly your own starship adventure, from the creative minds behind interactive theatre titans, Parabolic
London
Until 29 September 2024
Watching the House by Coney - This is your first day on your new job as a Watcher at Marble Hill. As a guardian of the house, your role is to sit quietly. To observe. To remain invisible and protect the treasures of the past. But as you sit, you hear a voice. You hear many voices, asking you to take notice. Things are not always as they seem… Coney presents a new interactive smartphone adventure and a programme of live events exploring the colonial history of the site.
Marble Hill, London
Until 29 September 2024
Jury Games, live - play Jury Duty or The Inquest, sift through evidence and interview defendants to get to the truth. Read our interview with creator Tom Black.
Theatre Deli, London
Until 30 November 2024
August 2024
A. MAZE GLUM special party edition - On Friday August 2nd, the Berlin-based international games and playful media label A MAZE. will hold their first ever event in the UK. A one day event that will feature digital interactive exhibits, alternative controller and video games, HyperTalks, DJs and VJs, across a daytime and evening programme. Experience video games and play on another level, with a slice of Berlin games, playful media and club culture coming to Sheffield.
Sheffield
2 August 2024
[computer]: Harbinger Theatre - an interactive show that requires audience’s honesty about identity in order to accurately conclude and market to the one great unifier of humankind
Camden Fringe, London
5-7 August 2024
Where We Meet - Unwired Dance Theatre - Where We Meet is an interactive, audio-based dance installation where audiences can experience the inner thoughts of a dancer. This piece aims to open up the conversation about mental health and to break down taboos by facilitating an empathetic and intimate experience.
Camden Fringe, London
12 August 2024
Deathcell Magenta: an Origin Story - live-action scare-fest is a wild and thrilling experience, combining theatrical cinema, time-pressured puzzle solving and impossible decisions. Betrayal, deception and unprecedented choices lie ahead... are you ready to push play?
Hackney Wick, London
23 - 31 August 2024
BOUND - Immersive physical theatre work spread over five floors, exploring grief
OXO Bargehouse, London
25 August - 7 September 2024
Edinburgh Fringe: Interactive shows at this year’s fringe
ARCADE by Darkfield - The latest immersive audio experience from Darkfield. Using the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE's interactive narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars. Over 30 minutes in a completely dark shipping container, this choose-your-own-path experience will fully immerse the players using 360 degree binaural sound, sensory effects and a bespoke Darkfield Arcade machine for each player. Players will be asked existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win and some may lose...
31 July - 26 August 2024
Nation by YESYESNONO - 'Here we all are... sat together in one room. One room. One audience. One… beautiful nation'. From the creator of We Were Promised Honey! and Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist comes a new experiment in storytelling. It’s the story of a nation. It’s the story of a theatre. It’s the story of an audience. Outside there are people trying to get in. And in the middle of the room… apparently a show is taking place.
1 - 26 August 2024
Werewolf by Binge Culture - Surrender yourself to a comedy-thriller experience inspired by the classic game of deception. What feels like a game by daylight takes on new life when plunged into the night. Created by one of New Zealand's most innovative theatre companies, Werewolf features chilling sound design and a unique immersive style; you can be a fly on the wall or take charge of the situation. However you decide to play it, you will become part of a community coming together to make it through the night. But what is hiding in the darkness that is making everyone so nervous?
1 - 26 August 2024
The Court by Edinburgh Little Theatre - This courtroom drama centres around the question of assisted dying. Did Cathy murder her mother, or help end her suffering? Join the jury and question your thinking.
2 - 25 August 2024
Temping by Dutch Kills Theatre Company - In a basement office in Illinois, there's a job waiting for you. Sarah Jane is on vacation, and you've been hired to fill in. In this interactive show for one, you'll explore her cubicle, answer her phone, and receive her faxes as the story of Sarah Jane unfolds. Sit down, send an email, and experience a meditation on life and death between the cells of an Excel spreadsheet.
3 - 25 August 2024
I Am, Other - immersive family drama, about an older relative’s act of aggression towards a biracial child, actively investigates white privilege, judgement, identity and bias. I Am, Other invites the audience, through interactive engagement, to explore why it is not okay to be different. Spectators become participants in shaping the lens through which they see the world.
12 - 25 August 2024
Consequences by Platform YP - Consequences follows a group of teenagers on a school trip in 1996. The audience will vote on which way the story goes, with four very different outcomes. Nostalgic and light-hearted. Set in a time before teenagers owned mobile phones, when you were either Blur or Oasis.
12 - 17 August 2024
Lie with Me by Glossy Pain - In their daring debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, Glossy Pain take the audience to bed. How can we be vulnerable with each other, when the world around us demands us to be hard? Creating a space of intimacy, this is a provocative exploration of sexual desires and the lies that shape them. Teasing and tormenting both herself and the audience, Riah Knight questions the authenticity of performance, seeking answers from religious and mythical figures with humour and introspection.
12 - 24 August 2024
Worm Teeth by SMaK Productions - Worm is quite happy being just that: a worm. However, there is one thing missing – this worm wants teeth. And you, yes you, are going to help it get them! As you move through the forest, you will meet Worm's friends (and enemies), play games, sing songs, and talk through both your own and Worm's anxieties, doubts, and feelings. In the end, it is up to you – will you help Worm get the teeth it wants? Or will you take things a step further and help it achieve self-acceptance?
19-25 August 2024
So OCD! by Maia Kinney-Petrucha and Susannah Holub - What if almost everything you did felt like it could bring about the end of the world? Fear experts Maia and Susannah take you on a tour of their darkest secrets (and yours) in this one-act comedy all about living with OCD and anxiety. So OCD! explores the irony, horror and pure ridiculousness of growing up in a constant state of fight-or-flight through an interactive, multimedia play.
19-20 August 2024
Fortune Bistro - Fortune Bistro offers a tantalising exploration of human/AI relationships and cultural dichotomies within the intimate ambiance of a blind-dating event. Two souls, one guided by Chinese divination, the other by AI, embark on a journey of chance and connection.
20-24 August 2024
September 2024
The Key of Dreams - highly immersive and interactive luxury 24 hour Lovecraftian experience set in a 17th century manor house, on the border of dream and waking.
Treowen House, Wales
September, October and December 2024
October 2024
Fight Night - Ontoerend Goed - Five contenders. Five rounds. Your vote. Only one will survive. The stakes: your attention, your love, your approval, your laughter, your compassion, your weak spot, your guilty pleasure, your heart, your support, your choice. We help you to decide through random checks, voting signposts, coalitions, campaigns, debates, consultants, exit polls, spin doctors, opinion gauges, list pushers, referendums. We’ll do anything to make the best not win. Award winning interactive theatre from legendary Belgian experimental theatre collective
Watford, Hertfordshire
Ongoing exhibits:
Digital Art Murals Unwired Studio / Bedford Creative Arts - series of AR murals inviting players to launch airships, fly planes and break into a bank vault and learn more about local Bedford history.
Bedford High Street (scan QR codes to play)
The Ministry of Time Travel, by Coney - a series of adventures created at The National Archives for young people & families. Audiences are welcomed to the world of The Ministry of Time Travel (MOTT), a secret organisation based at the heart of The National Archives, to use the evidence from the past available there, to safeguard time itself
Online or at The National Archives
TIME QUEST: Step into Battersea Arts Centre and experience a time-bending, mind-wobbling journey! Hidden around the building are portals to possible futures, and it’s up to you to uncover their secrets. Embark on an adventure to explore, listen, and discover three voices from another time hidden around the building.
Battersea Arts Centre, London