Sage & Jester, a groundbreaking new arts production company, announces the world premiere of STOREHOUSE, an ambitious production that will challenge your sense of truth and trust. Opening on Wednesday 4th June and running until Saturday the 20th of September at Deptford Storehouse in London, STOREHOUSE promises to be one of the UK’s most artistically daring and large-scale immersive theatre shows.
1. What was the initial inspiration behind STOREHOUSE? Particularly in reference to the creation of this new world.
CARO:
Initially we had thought that we were going to be in a magical realism library, and a lot of the early world building was based around the ideas of libraries. In the writers room we hit on some great ideas as we developed the concept of populating our world with interesting roles that had real-world analogs like class and role identity– that gave us a lot of juice to squeeze and some fantastic thematic elements flowed from there.
TRISTAN:
Thematically, we were looking at some pretty serious contemporary issues of misinformation and disinformation; but stylistically, I think we all knew that you can’t really tackle that head on without being didactic and finger-wagging. So we brought a lot of our love of genre (sci-fi, magical realism, that kind of thing) to find a way to make the story not only accessible but bigger, more engaging. Libraries were a key thing – which was good by me cos I love me a library. (Libraries are cool, kids – support your local library!).
2. How did you, as writers, balance creating a large-scale immersive experience with presenting a coherent narrative that will resonate with audiences?
CARO:
Simply put: narrative architecture and a dedicated focus on the participant experience. Great stories have an energetic cadence to them, and this type of work has a lot of crossover with fundamental principles of game design, where in the true role of the writer/designer is to be– first and foremost– an advocate for the participant’s experience. We think about that experience from many perspectives and levels of interest in participating so we can create meaningful moments of agency. While not all experiences are exactly the same, all are equally meaningful.
TRISTAN:
It’s a tough balance, but I think we did a good job. We all agreed that story needs to come first. You can have the most incredible looking experience with lights and sound and all sorts of neat tricks, but without a good story, it feels hollow. (It’s why black-box theatre works – no set but the story does the heavy lifting.) The key for this is to have Story and Scale work hand-in-hand and then find space for the audience to bring themselves into it – which is like traditional theatre in many ways, only with greater agency, complicity and play.
3. What about this story makes it relevant to the world we’re living in today?
CARO:
In a word– everything. The themes are so incredibly relevant to the world right now; truth, misinformation, identity, choice, personal and collective actions. I think the characters and world we are presenting will really resonate with people.
TRISTAN:
Without revealing too much, it’s about technology and information – how it’s used and abused and often plain made up. And since you’re probably reading this on a phone/tablet/laptop, the chances are you’ve experienced that very thing first hand a couple of times today already.
4. How large a part did collaboration play in this process? Both with the other writers but also the production team.
CARO:
Collaboration was absolutely critical– being able to take in new perspectives and adapt to incorporate fantastic ideas while also being able to kill your darlings is necessary when developing work like this. The best ideas often come from the talents of many many voices, with the guidance of an amazing story producer and creative director to select what is strong and meaningful. It was truly an honor to work with so many talented people in all aspects of the process.
TRISTAN:
It played a huge part – enormous. Any live show requires collaboration but with a show this big, even more so. Luckily, we all got on incredibly well – the writers room, creative team, technical departments. That’s not always a given so we were lucky.
5. Given the immersive nature of the show, are you hoping for unique, personal interpretations from audience members, or is there a central message you want to land?
CARO:
Can I say both? For me, really hitting a strong theme is powerful because it can create bonding shared experiences. That can start movements! And at the same time, each experience is unique and there’s an elegant beauty in allowing and encouraging someone to have a deeply personal take.
TRISTAN:
Personally, I never like to tell an audience how to interpret a piece – everyone brings themselves to a show and takes something different from it – but I hope if people see Storehouse, they will come away with this message: just think for a second.