We Speak to the Producer and Co-Creator of Choosing Children, A New Immersive Theatre Experience Coming to Lakeside Arts

Immersive theatre has definitely gained popularity in recent years - how will the audience be involved in the performance?
Laura: The audience are posed questions throughout the performance, asking them specific questions about genetic engineering and whether they would consider using this technology on their unborn child. There is a mobile device with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers to these questions. 

The performance uses avatars and VR to bring the topic to life - what is it like working with this kind of technology during production?
Laura: We both come from filmmaking backgrounds. Ben's speciality is using this technology in previous works, so for us it was one of the easiest parts of production using our expertise. For us, the most challenging part was the casting process as we had such a high number of actors applying, which is great but that makes it much harder to choose. Diverse casting was also very important to us; we wanted characters from all different backgrounds and a well-represented cast. 

With such a hefty topic, it must take a fair bit of research to put together a show like this?
Laura: Yes! Choosing Children has been in development for around five years, it was written by three writers. Ben's passionate about ethics within his work and using current technology, and is always looking for new ways to explore.

In 2021 Choosing Children was lucky to have been awarded Arts Council funding during the Research and Development stage. This enabled the team to benefit from research and advice given by experts in the field of genetic engineering; plus, the technology was tested during this phase (although this has adapted much more in production stages!), and advice also came from people living with disabilities.

What inspired you to explore this topic in the first place? Where did the idea initially originate from?
Ben: My interest in the subject came from resurfacing of neo eugenics ideology. The idea came when having a scan for our child, I just accepted they do whatever prenatal scans they wanted. On reflection it got me thinking about the idea of what if these scans came positive and what if they scanned for more things I would want that would change my child.

What is it about this topic that you think lends itself well to the immersive theatre experience? I imagine the moral dilemma element of it gets a lot of people thinking, engaging and actively participating!
Laura: The feedback we have received so far is thought-provoking, which is exactly what we intended to achieve. The idea is to get people thinking and having new conversations about how far would you go? Is it morally acceptable to change the destiny of our unborn child? Whether that be to remove disabilities, or make a child more intelligent or a supreme athlete? 

Although the answers are not shared within the audience at the time of the performance, to keep anonymity to hard-hitting questions, we believe friends and families will discuss their thoughts afterwards. We will also share the anonymised data and statistics with audiences once the current tour is finished. 

The answers that the audience gives to these dilemmas will affect the nature of the environment they are in through interactive digital technology, that is intuitively linked to set design. Could you explain a bit more about how this works?
Laura: The technology is a mobile phone and headphone set through which audiences respond with yes/no answers. The live actor and avatars will discuss the topics during the show, the live actor will then address the audience with these ideas. The questions appear on the phones through captions and audio. 

You provide an offboarding area for the audience to discuss the impact of the performance after the show. I imagine this encourages a bit of debate! Have you found the show to have changed people’s perception of genetic engineering?
Laura: The offboarding is a visual representation of people's initial thoughts. Audiences are presented with two questions about genetic engineering, its impact and their concerns and they are invited to write them down on a board. This is to ensure that everyone has a voice, without fear of having to speak in a group situation. Again, these thoughts will be shared with audiences after the show. 

Developed specifically for black box spaces, Choosing Children uniquely integrates BSL, captioning, and audio description into every performance, making it a highly accessible show. How important was this to you, given the strong themes of accessibility, ethics and disability within your productions?
Laura: This is highly important to us. As the show deals with issues about disability we wanted to ensure people could access it with a range of access needs. So, using the technology we had in the show, we built a system to allow BSL, audio description and captions into every​ show, rather than maybe the one show in a typical theatre run. This is a customised, unique system, which could be used across the sector as best practice.  

Catch Choosing Children for yourself at Lakeside Arts on Saturday 25 November

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