All the stage's a world

Turn the doorknob and shut the door behind you You are plunged into an inky blackness You emerge only to realise how drafty the room is It has a smell you canrsquot quite place Something crunches as you walk mdash a carpet made of computer keyboards Therersquos a faint hum of machines through the wallsFar in the distance are two doors ajar but only just Which one do you take You pick one at whim and a voice speaks to you inside It is not humanYou follow it pick up things strewn around enter the secret passageways with it even read a letter the lsquopersonrsquo discards midway A story unfoldsNayantara Kotian and Prashant Prakash PicSuresh KKIf by now yoursquove guessed that yoursquore in another universe a thousand years ahead of time yoursquove just had your first experience of immersive theatreIn June this is the sensory experience artistic director Nayantara Kotian and actor Prashant Prakash will offer theatre buffs through their scifi play The Bliss of Solitude which is also the debut production of their company CrowA scene from The Bliss Of Solitude Pic courtesyShomil ShahBut more importantly Crow brings immersive theatre to India These are participative experiences in which the audience members are not mere spectatorsThey can follow any actor choose what they watch and where they go around the venue They can move around the set pick up and examine props and installations Unlike traditional plays the flow of the story is not static it is layered and unfolds at multiple spaces across the venue only to be neatly tied up at the end The Bliss of Solitude for instance is set in a dystopian future and looks at the last man on Earth as he desperately battles lonelinessNaturally set design is key in immersive theatre but Bangalorebased Kotian 31 says its success lies in the audienceactor relationship The proximity of the audience to the playrsquos characters as they follow them around transforms it from a play to an experience ldquoAn audience member has the potential to change the story in immersive theatre because of their involvement They can influence the actors which is not the case in a traditional playrdquo she addsAfter studying Film and Video Communication Design at the National Institute of Design Kotian cofounded Quaff Theatre with Prakash and actor Kalki Koechlin in 2008 In 2012 Kotian began pursuing her masters degree in London and founded Fiddlerrsquos Green a collective dedicated to original science fiction theatre ldquoI also did a workshop with Punchdrunk the theatre company founded by Felix Barrett which pioneered immersive theatre Irsquove been reading science fiction by Philip Dick Kurt Vonnegut Isaac Asimov Arthur C Clarke since I was a kidhellip and started wondering how I could include it in my work My stint at Punchdrunk was the answer I was looking forrdquo she smilesIn 2013 Prakash visited Kotian in London and was immediately hooked to the idea ldquoFor me the most compelling part of immersive theatre is the worlds it straddles mdash it is theatre an installation and a game all rolled into onerdquo he saysBringing immersive theatre to India comes with its own set of challenges of course Venues for immersive theatre vary from traditional plays because of the formerrsquos productionintensive designheavy format Sets explains Prakash often take a month to build For traditional plays venues can be booked over a few days or the weekend but for an immersive experience which can accommodate 3040 audience members spaces must to be hired for at least a month to make it economically viableldquoIn the UK where immersive theatre has a rich history and a dedicated audience we watched a play which featured 350 actors but allowed only one audience memberrdquo says Prakash with a hint of aweKotian and Prakash are positive that the time to being immersive plays to India is right especially because alternative venues open to experimentation are opening up in cities such as Mumbai Delhi and BangaloreldquoI think the closest Indian theatre tradition has come to immersive theatre is the Ram Leelardquo says Prakash Actors in an immersive plays have to be expert improvisers too ldquoThey must accommodate impromptu changes to their dialogue if say an audience member trips over a prop in their presence Punchdrunk gives their audience members masks apart from separating them from the actors it also discourages them from speaking to one anotherrdquo remembers KotianCrowrsquos second play will be a sliceoflife story about a small town actor disillusioned about his role of a rabbit and begins quoting Shakespeare to make life bearableldquoWe love scifi but we also want to have a lot of fun with immersive theatre We are toying with the idea of a childrenrsquos musical I think immersive theatre has huge potential thererdquo says PrakashWhy the name Crow ldquoBecause crows are very very smart creaturesrdquo he grinsTo crowdfund The Bliss of Solitude log on to wwwwishberryincampaigntheblissofsolitudeLog on to wwwfacebookcomthecrowexperience