Acclaimed Scottish theatre company Visible Fictions has been producing award-winning creative experiences for young people since 1991.
A variety of events have been staged in such different places as on bikes, in parks, on boats and online, redefining what theatre is and where it can happen.
And, this week, the organisation is hosting its unique immersive show, The Hidden, in the Sir Duncan Rice Library at Aberdeen University.
This follows a sell-out run at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the bold venture, which has been brought to fruition by the company’s artistic director, Douglas Irvine from Fraserburgh, is attracting a significant amount of interest in the north-east.
In essence, The Hidden is a dramatic, interactive experience for small groups of adults and teenagers, who are tasked with working as a team to make sense of clues and come up with their own theory to solve a mystery at the venue from October 2 to 8.
And Irvine, one of life’s enthusiasts with a penchant for keeping participants on their toes, admits he is relishing the opportunity to see how Aberdeen reacts to the initiative.
Plenty of twists and turns
He said: “Creating this dramatic experience has been both thrilling and challenging, because there are many complexities, twists and turns and we can’t wait to see the decisions that our audiences take. We are delighted to be touring after such a positive response to our run of shows [in Edinburgh].
“The Hidden’ came about after a combining of two separate conversations that happened at the same time. I had been chatting with colleagues in the library sector who were keen to find ways to engage teenagers with their buildings and services and they asked if Visible Fictions could help.
“They knew about our success in animating spaces and creating site-responsive work and hoped that we could help with their libraries.
“At the same time, I had also been chatting with the artist and interpersonal games creator – Cameron Hall – about how a piece of theatre could be made that had the audience at the heart of it while playing a game.”
It occurred to Irvine that it would be fascinating to discover what happened when the audience became the centre of a drama, rather than merely watching a group of actors depicting characters on stage. Then, once these two ideas came together, he had a Eureka moment and The Hidden sprung to life.
Visible Fictions work in myriad schools, institutions, communities and work places to build bespoke projects which are designed to surprise and excite.
And, given their track record, they have clearly succeeded in that objective.
Further information is available by emailing sophie@visiblefictions.co.uk
