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Putting you at the heart of scenes from Shakespeare's most iconic stories
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Click the images to watch. Best enjoyed wearing headphones.
On a phone or tablet, tap the text at the top to activate "magic window" mode in the YouTube app.
Alternatively, pop on your VR headset or go full screen on your computer.
Shakespeare and Virtual Reality
The making of strange bedfellows
VR is a performance space that allows for a dynamic new way to tell stories and connect with audiences. In 2018 we took three scenes from Shakespeare's most iconic plays and crafted them for an a single audience member who sits at the very centre of each story. It provides you, the audience, with an opportunity to be a voyeur (the ultimate fly-on-the-wall), the conscience of the character (the ultimate trusted friend), or an actual character in the story.
Why Shakespeare? Well, because the audience can exist as any combination of the roles mentioned above, we needed scripts that were written with these actor/audience relationships in mind. Shakespeare wrote his plays for a round space with the audience in the middle (The Globe, The Theatre, The Rose). In these theatres the audience couldn't be hidden in darkness, so Shakespeare and his contemporaries cast the audience as voyeur, conscience or character as part of the play going experience - these actor/audience relationships were/are woven into the plays. With this in mind, the classics seemed like a great place to find compelling stories that would come alive in VR. We gave it a go with the help of ACE and Heritage Lottery, and with the technical support of Henry Stuart at the noted VR company, Visualise, and we think the results are pretty cool - we hope you think so too.
The making of strange bedfellows
VR is a performance space that allows for a dynamic new way to tell stories and connect with audiences. In 2018 we took three scenes from Shakespeare's most iconic plays and crafted them for an a single audience member who sits at the very centre of each story. It provides you, the audience, with an opportunity to be a voyeur (the ultimate fly-on-the-wall), the conscience of the character (the ultimate trusted friend), or an actual character in the story.
Why Shakespeare? Well, because the audience can exist as any combination of the roles mentioned above, we needed scripts that were written with these actor/audience relationships in mind. Shakespeare wrote his plays for a round space with the audience in the middle (The Globe, The Theatre, The Rose). In these theatres the audience couldn't be hidden in darkness, so Shakespeare and his contemporaries cast the audience as voyeur, conscience or character as part of the play going experience - these actor/audience relationships were/are woven into the plays. With this in mind, the classics seemed like a great place to find compelling stories that would come alive in VR. We gave it a go with the help of ACE and Heritage Lottery, and with the technical support of Henry Stuart at the noted VR company, Visualise, and we think the results are pretty cool - we hope you think so too.
#CultureInQuarantine
In April 2020, at a time when Relative Motion is unable to bring performers and creators together to make new narrative experiences in virtual reality, we decided to re-imagine the material we captured in 2018 and, with the help of composer Tom Adams, give it a new lease of life. It’s our small contribution to keeping culture alive during quarantine. Seeing as the pieces above are short, we have provided you with links to the full text of each play, a production of each play from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and with some interesting articles to put each play in context. We thought it might provide you with some enjoyable pursuits during these socially distant times.
You'll find this Quarantine Content on each play's homepage.
You'll find this Quarantine Content on each play's homepage.
