With such a promising space, unfortunately this fledgling work offered nothing new in terms of site-specific theatre and was frankly a waste of one of the best buildings I have ever visited in London, my time and my money.
One of the most exciting events in this year’s MERGE Festival, Bankside, London, is an immersive theatrical performance set in a disused World War Two air raid shelter behind Tate Modern.
Commissioned especially for MERGE, The Second Word from the Story of the Cage is a collaboration between Iranian writer and director, Cyrus G Seif, and innovative theatre company, Meet Alice.
Telling a story of selfishness among gender, race and class that go to war with each other for their own ends, it provides the audience with a personal interactive journey into the unknown.
Visitors to the air raid shelter beneath the picturesque and listed Hopton Garden almhouses in Bankside will be encouraged to become part of the piece by considering the opposites of daily life while being plunged into darkness on a slow, silent trip into an invisible world.
The scripted performance starts in the gardens with 6 to 15 actors waiting to take the 30 visitors on a 90-minute adventure that could go anywhere, depending where the audience participation takes it.
While the story passes through time from the present, past and pre-history, the traveller is taken through light and dark, both literally and physically, as the play develops.
Cyrus G Seif says: “I want the audience to have a spiritual experience full of the positive energy I feel in the air raid shelter.
“The most important elements of the piece are local history and the feeling that it is a pilgrimage for the viewer.”
To create The Second Word from the Story of the Cage, Cyrus drew on his experiences of his homeland, Iran, and his time as a novelist in Holland.
Meet Alice is no stranger to fans of immersive theatre – they’ve previously had two successful, sell-out runs in London: the first on a canal boat, the second in the Old Vic Tunnels. Meet Alice is also MERGE’s artists-in-residence.
Please note, with sincerest apologies the performance is unsuitable for those with serious mobile disability.For more information regarding this or to inform us of any physical impairments please contact [email protected]