Virtual reality will transport audiences to the depths of the Great Barrier Reef in supernatural coming-of-age thriller Frogman.
Following previews at Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the #HullTakeover, the ambitious show, which fuses live theatre with 360 film in Virtual Reality, is coming to C4DI from 1 to 11 November.
The co-production between curious directive, Hull UK City of Culture 2017, The Deep and The Old Market, in association with Brisbane Powerhouse, sees renowned theatre makers curious directive bridge the space between science and art.
Frogman centres around Meera, an 11-year-old Australian coral enthusiast. It is the summer holidays and three friends are having a sleepover as they await their first day at high school. The high school bully goes missing – presumed dead. Donning virtual headsets for key parts of the evidence, the audience play along as members of the jury in the ensuing murder trial.
Blending youthful nostalgia with a dark sense of haunting unease, the show captures that yearning to return to more innocent days, real or imagined and the pain at the realisation that those days are gone forever.
The show has been three years in the making with Artistic Director Jack Lowe working alongside specialists in marine biology from The Deep, as well as guidance from The Great Barrier Reef Association.
Katy Duke, CEO at The Deep said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Curious Directive and Hull 2017. Frogman has the potential to engage and inspire a generation of youngsters, blending theatre and technology with a story based on the other side of the world.”
The creation of Frogman has included underwater film shoots in Australia and Indonesia and was made in close collaboration with schools from Hull and Backbone Youth Arts, Brisbane, a leading Australian experimental youth theatre.
Martin Green, Director of Hull 2017, said: “We are very excited to be bringing this multi-sensory show to Hull. Audiences will be able to experience a new form of storytelling which blurs the lines between reality and fiction, the physical and the virtual.
“Frogman is the latest in a series of commissions throughout the year which recognise Hull’s relationship with the sea. Frogman uses the latest technology to explore the impending coral reef bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, enabling audiences to experience the reefs in a uniquely immersive way, seeing the damage taking place with their own eyes.”
Founded in 2008, curious directive is widely recognised for risk taking and genre-pushing theatre. The company are double Fringe First winners and their previous work includes Pioneer, The Kindness of Strangers, After the Rainfall, Olfactory, Binary, Exoplanets and Your Last Breath.
Tickets start from £12.50 and are available from www.hull2017.co.uk/events/frogman-by-curious-directive/
