Lead Shakespeare into the digital forest
It's been a difficult 12 months for theaters and artists as Covid closed venues and put shows on hold. While the arts and culture sectors faced major challenges, there have been some promising green shoots pointing to a more digital, accessible, and international future for the industry.
Dream, a new version of Shakespeare's A Midsummmer Night & # 39; s Dream, is an example of this. The 50-minute show, which combines motion capture, live performance, virtual reality and online interactivity and is a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company, the UK studio Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), the Manchester International Festival and the Philharmonia Orchestra, offers a vision of a new hybrid form of theater.
It is streamed to viewers around the world and focuses on the character of Puck, played by EM Williams, and the forest in which the piece is set. But instead of a stage design and backdrop, the forests are a virtual world of trees and green, with which one lined up fireflies and inhabited by impossible creatures.
The show, which goes online from March 12-20, was originally intended to be a real-world performance alongside an online item, but it was discontinued shortly before the UK's initial lockdown, according to Robin McNicholas – director of Dream and MLF. McNicholas mourns the lost event, but says the creative team quickly reunited to understand how the research and development work they had already done can be turned into a "digital hub".