Chronic Insanity is to host an ambitious digital programme with three new productions to be launched over the next three months. The digital-focused shows announced for February to May will showcase Chronic Insanity’s characteristically playful style as part of their 12 shows in 12 months project for 2021.
Drawing on the unnerving and the unusual, the Nottingham-based company’s digital work plays with a host of different online platforms to tell stories about the digital worlds that are becoming increasingly important in our lives.
Kicking off the new digital season is Douglas Deans’ 24, 23, 22 (available February 26th), a gig-theatre production about what happens when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Told through a variety of social media platforms, 24, 23, 22 is played out by two performers, with the audience put in charge of choosing who will perform.
From March 29th, Flavour Text is an internet-wide narrative treasure hunt. Encouraging participants to actively piece together the story, Flavour Text takes audiences down a rabbit hole of lies as the story unfolds in reviews and comment sections across a variety of websites.
With a rise in online games over lockdown, including the hugely popular Among Us which divides friendship groups into crewmates and imposters, Joe Strickland’s There’s Something Among Us asks what happens when our video game actions have real-life repercussions. There’s Something Among Us tells a story through multiple video feeds to uncover the opening of old wounds and the revelation of unspoken truths against a backdrop of a seemingly harmless online game.
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Artistic Director Joe Strickland said, “In the same way that local theatres should tell local stories, I think digital theatre should focus on telling digital stories. This opens up so many untold stories to tell, audiences to reach, and opportunities for both creatives and audiences to make or experience theatre in innovative ways. This season for us is not only about telling those digital stories, but doing so on online platforms that make sense for those stories, all while exploring how many ways we can give audiences different options to experience the productions as possible. What happens if an audience can choose the cast of the show for themselves, experience stories over the timescale they want, or decide how much of the world of a story they want to dive into? We’re very excited to find out!”.
Led by Nat Henderson and Joe Strickland, Chronic Insanity use sustainable theatre making practices, record all performances in multiple digital formats, create new opportunities for other creatives to get their work on, and document the whole process for others to learn from. Joe Strickland combines experience as a theatre maker, magician, psychologist, and creative technologist to make original audiences experiences for traditional, found, and digital spaces.
