Immersive theater is coming in a big way

Theater isn't just growing, it's evolving into new forms and manifestations. With the completion of another edition of FiraTàrrega, where the most innovative proposals coexist with traditional ones and all find their audiences, often the same ones, now comes an innovative concept: immersive theater.

La Vanguardia has had exclusive access to the project being prepared by the production company Forty Entertainment. It's Supersàpiens, by Roc Esquius. The first version, which premiered in 2017 at the Flyhard theater, was about a troubled health minister whose life involves a woman with a proposal he can't accept, but which, despite everything, will change everything.

Marta Torné and Enric Cambray perform a work with light and sound effects, but without video.

With the work, which features two performers, Enric Cambray and Marta Torné, directed by Sergi Belbel, 400 spectators will be immersed in a light and sound show, without videos. Behind this production are two young people, Martí Font and Cristina Oliva, who saw the grand possibilities of a work that had been performed in one of Barcelona's smallest venues, "and which they discovered on video," Belbel observes.

The producers state that "the creation of a dedicated space for the show follows the style of major international immersive productions, in the style of Sleep No More or the musical Startlight Express ." The space is a 2,000 m2 warehouse on Llull Street, in Barcelona's Poblenou district. The set design will be by Josep Iglesias, and the lighting and sound will be provided by Santi Vilanova and Eloi Mauladell of Playmodes, a company responsible for creations such as the set design for Ros-Marbà's opera Benjamin at Portbou, which premiered at the Liceu in July.

Belbel is enthusiastic about this project—“it's something very different from anything I've done”—and highlights, above all, the drive of the young producers, who “seen the possibility of turning a small play into something very big.” “The concept isn't just a play, it's an experience, even from the entrance and exit, but I can't say any more,” he continues. “Once we had Marta Torné on board, accustomed to dealing with the crowds and returning to the theater after fifteen years, and Enric Cambray, who is a beast and was already involved in the original project, we needed a difference, which had to be in the lighting and sound, something different from what we normally do in the theater. And that's where Playmode comes in, who do amazing things. We called them, and they also said yes; so, all the stars were in our favor.”

Regarding the new Supersàpiens, Belbel summarizes: “It's a comedy with dystopian touches, which touches on themes that resonate with us today, and it also has a powerful ideological foundation, somewhat camouflaged, because in comedies it's better if the subject isn't explicitly mentioned.” “And there's no video; the 3D is provided by the actors,” he concludes.