T
he aim is to thrill. At venues
across the country audiences
are pouring into immersive art
experiences — whether that’s
putting on a virtual reality
headset to step into the world
of Frida Kahlo at an exhibition soon to
tour the UK, or dancing with the per-
formers at the Barbican’s Le Bal de
Paris.
The latter show uses VR as well as
body-tracking technology so you feel as
if you are in an imagined universe as
you follow the performance’s tender
love story. These shows may use
screens and apps but they are about
real-life connection and those feelings
of togetherness that we missed out on
over two years of lockdowns.The event to look forward to is
Warner Studios’ Arkham Asylum, based
on a series of Batman video games, in
London in September. Warner’s pres-
ence proves another point — these are
commercial beasts; self-funded profit-
making ventures. Performance prices
are on a par with West End theatre; the
exhibitions are often on global tours,
their ticket prices on a level with other
touring spectacles. The art shown will
be the work that finds its way on to
posters and gift shop merchandise; the
stories will be lavish and well known.
This is art as entertainment, competing
with cinema, sport and big events. That
thrill doesn’t come cheap.
It’s a crowded field, so which events
are worth your money and time? cDAYS OUT
TRY SOMETH
Get lost in sunflower fields with
virtual reality Van Gogh — or dine at
Fawlty Towers with Manuel and Basil.
We put bold new shows to the test
Punchdrunk by Stephen Armstrong
Stumbling down alleyways obscured
by clouds of smoke, this is as far from
traditional theatre as it is possible
to get. Punchdrunk’s latest show,
The Burnt City, unfolds in two vast
warehouses in Woolwich, nearly the
size of two football pitches. There’s
no chance of drifting off in your seat
at this shocking piece about the fall
of Troy — you have to explore.
Punchdrunk is the patient zero
of the immersive art outbreak. The
founder, Felix Barrett, formed the
company in 2000, putting on shows
that blur the line between a theatrical
event and a night out. It’s named after
the moment a boxer staggers
between the knockout punch and
falling to the canvas – “reeling, head
in the stars, senses overloaded,”
Barrett says. “Like our audience.”
It’s been a global hit, and now it
has come home with its first
London show in eight years.You make your way past steel tanks
watching Greek soldiers destroy the
city, only to return to a ravaged land
and a violent fate. Even the bar — a
place of safety where the audience
can buy a drink — has a weird cabaret
that would please David Lynch.
Alice Deakin, 32, who was there,
had a visceral reaction and felt like
she was in a war zone. “I felt actual
hatred of the enemy character in a
way I’ve never felt in the cinema. I
swear I wanted to hurt that bloke. I’ve
never felt so intensely about what’s
basically a bit of modern dance.”
Barrett puts some distance
between Punchdrunk and other
immersive art. “It’s the alchemy of
light, sound, choreography, story and
emotion that the metaverse will never
deliver. But we don’t want to hurt you.
We hope you have a delightful time.”
The Burnt City is in preview until
Apr 17 and runs until Aug 28;
onecartridgeplace.comNational Gallery app for kids
by Patricia Nicol
“What do you remember about the
National Gallery?” I asked my
11-year-old son, Harvey, en route to
our first visit since pre-Covid times.
“Not modern like Tate Modern,” he
answered. Technically correct: the
NG’s collection ends in the 1900s.
What he was really alluding to
was an atmosphere. Tate Modern’s
Turbine Hall has been as familiar a
playground as any London park.
The National Gallery feels altogether
more serious, but they need to
encourage future generations:
launching tomorrow is The Keeper
of Paintings and the Palette of
Perception, an app for 7 to 11-year-
olds that takes you on a trail through
the gallery.
It starts by showing you a cartoon
on your phone. A magus-like keeperof paintings has lost his powerful
palette of perception — a cat
chasing a bird knocked it from his
grasp. To retrieve gems scattered
through paintings, he needs the aid
of a child apprentice. The child has
to hold up the phone’s camera in
front of paintings to glean
information and retrieve gems,
encountering challenges on their
way. Other prompts are more
about ways of seeing: to identify a
favourite artwork, or discuss colour
or brushstroke.
Of course, you may be visiting a
gallery to get kids off screens. But the
cleverness of the app design is that
the rewards only come via close
study with the naked eye. There are
more wholeheartedly immersive art
experiences, but Harvey seems keen
to return, which surely makes this
app a keeper.‘IT’S NOT THEATRE -- YOU’RE IN A WAR ZONE’
Faulty Towers by Quentin Letts
Alongside dental surgery, celery
and the hymn Shine Jesus Shine,
audience participation is my least
favourite thing. With heavy tread,
therefore, one arrived for the Faulty
Towers Dining Experience. Two hours
later my 23-year-old daughter,
Eveleen, and I left with a bellyful of
quite good roast chicken and an idea
of how terrifying it must have been to
stay at Fawlty Towers.
Some 40 diners/victims gathered
for drinks. Then a white-jacketed
waiter soon started making a bad job
of wiping tables. “Manuel!” rasped
a tall, inky-haired maniac in
a sports jacket. Basil. Hesubjected guests to light abuse
before they were shown into the
dining room. Basil was soon touring
the tables, complaining about idiots
with food intolerances.
Before pea soup we were issued
with buns. This involved overdone
misunderstandings between Basil
(Jonathon Saunders) and Manuel
(Nick Moon), who ended up throwing
us the buns like zookeepers. Two
Texan women beside me dropped
theirs. They weren’t thrilled. Basil
noticed that I declined the soup. This
earned a sighing rebuke.
A man nearby had a bald
head. Basil’s wife, Sybil (Kat
Mary), gave it a polish and used‘THEY SERVED ME CHICKEN AND LIGHT ABUSE ‘
‘IT STARTS WITH A CARTOON ON YOUR PHONE’
DAFNIK RAZOUDI10 10 April 2022