Practitioner focus: Parabolic Theatre

Within the broad spectrum of immersive theatre, there are few companies that match Parabolic Theatre when it comes to depth of interactivity. The core of its work has placed audiences in the driving seat for a series of historical crises both real and imagined, allowing audiences to experience the horrifying reality of a Nazi invasion of wartime Britain or save the 1979 Callaghan government from the rise of Thatcher.

Influences and methodology

Founded in 2016 in Croydon, Parabolic were initially inspired by immersive giants Punchdrunk, with whom they are now favourably compared. Parabolic stand out in one key area: where immersive work is commonly large scale, Parabolic's shows are nearly always designed for audiences of less than fifty; its shows are as detailed as they are intimate. Interactivity is at the heart of every Parabolic performance. Described by some as ‘forum theatre on steroids’, Parabolic makes the audience the collective protagonist from the start, bending the narrative around their input. Whether they are embodying a hastily assembled wartime government or a collection of Labour spads trying to fix the economy, Parabolic audiences are always at the centre of the story.

Exercise 1a: Designing mechanics

Devise a simple game that gets the audience to make significant decisions. The game should have a clear objective, obstacles in the way of that objective and tools that you can use to overcome the objective. A good example is Little Timmy's teddy in the well:

Little Timmy has dropped his teddy down a well. The audience must figure out how to get the teddy back (the objective). The obvious difficulty is that the well is deep and has water at the bottom of it, and the sides are very slippery (the obstacles). There is a bucket and a short piece of rope, a long pole, a hammer and some big nails (the tools). Ideally there should be a variety of tools that allow the audience to think of several creative ways of achieving the objective. There should never just be one right answer, as that would invalidate the need for a game. Creative limitations can be applied to stimulate ideas – by specifying the objective for example, or the selection of tools available.

Key features of Parabolic Theatre's work:

• Adaptive narrative
• Interactivity and improvisation
• Gameplay elements
• Encourage empathy
• Site-specific locations
• Audience make and implement key decisions that affect the narrative
• The audience and actors do not merely share the same space but inhabit the same world

Exercise 1b: Facilitating mechanics

Take it in turns to facilitate the game for the rest of the group – this is done verbally, with the facilitator describing the context of the game (like the Little Timmy example above), and then inviting the audience to describe possible solutions and decide collectively on a course of action. The facilitator should not railroad the audience down a particular path, rather they should set a time limit and apply time pressure in a creative manner (by describing what is happening in the scene). Once the time limit is reached a decision is forced, and the facilitator honestly describes what they believe the likely outcome would be and concludes the story. The facilitator should focus on bringing the world alive through their descriptions of what happens. The focus is not on winning or losing but on the story. Failing the objective should still produce an interesting story!

Exercise 2a: Create a character for the facilitator

In pairs, take it in turns to help your partner create a character who could facilitate this game. Who are they and what is their connection to the action? In the Little Timmy example, they could be Little Timmy's concerned mother, the bully who threw the teddy in the well, a helpful passer-by, or someone else entirely. Who is the most likely person to facilitate this game? Who is the least likely? Each person should try out two or three characters by having their partner hotseat them, asking questions of the character about their connection to the scene. The feedback of your partner is vital here. The character should be interesting, fun and make the audience want to play.

Exercise 2b: Facilitate in-character

Take it in turns to facilitate the game for the group again, only this time play the character you invented as you facilitate. How does the character change the emphasis of the scene? If possible, try and introduce some props and stand the scene on its feet. Do your best to physicalise the scene in some way. If the audience come up with something you have not considered, try and incorporate it. Have your partner improvise any extra characters you might need: if the audience decide to call the police for example, your partner could play the police officer. Never refuse a reasonable, in-world request. Unexpected audience interactions are not a problem to be solved, they are an opportunity to do something unexpectedly brilliant.

Themes

Parabolic Theatre describe itself as a political theatre company, but rather than champion a specific message their work examines the complexities of big issues, allowing multi-faceted problems to be explored from many angles by breaking them down and using game mechanics to explore them thoroughly. Artistic director Owen Kingston says: ‘what immersive theatre does better than anything else is encourage empathy. It is one thing to see a situation play out on stage at a distance, it is quite another to be there in the thick of it, having it happen to you and around you.’