Sound and Fury

We wanted to explore what “liveness” means when actors and avatars share the same stage, when code and flesh perform side by side, and when audiences are no longer just spectators but active players shaping the story. At its core, the project examines questions of control, fate, and free will — themes that bridge the worlds of theatre and gaming.

We set out to push the boundaries of what hybrid immersive theatre can be — testing how digital performance, responsive environments, and audience interaction could create genuine dramatic agency and emotional depth.

As a Deaf artist, Pinny was also determined to make accessibility an integral part of the art form itself. Captioning, BSL, and haptic design weren’t to be “add-ons” but expressive tools — woven into the visual and sensory fabric of the show, expanding how everyone could experience and feel the story.

The result was haunting: actors moving in shadow beside their glowing digital doubles, their gestures echoed, fractured, and reformed in real time. Working with a movement director, we found that this interplay between live and virtual bodies created moments of unexpected intimacy and emotion.

Actor–avatar interplay became the heart of the piece. We explored deliberate dissonance — when the avatar resisted its human controller sometimes even turning to murder the real actor on stage— and found that connection and conflict between the two redefined what “puppetry” could mean in a digital world.

For audience participation, we first tried giving individuals direct control of avatars, but this felt chaotic and shallow. The breakthrough came with collective “flashmob” actions on Discord — audiences joining forces online and, in the theatre, to form battle scenes. Suddenly, participation became storytelling: tense, communal, and electric.

Our sensory design extended this hybridity into the body. Responsive lighting pulsed in sync with game pixels; haptic vests transformed sound into vibration, letting audiences feel the battle rage.

Finally, we embedded accessibility as art. Creative captions became living visuals, BSL interpreters moved within the scene as spectral presences or through Discord servers, and these layers didn’t just include Deaf and disabled audiences — they deepened the atmosphere for everyone.

Each experiment taught us that technology isn’t the spectacle — emotion is. The tech just lets us reach it in new ways.

A key breakthrough was realising that group audience action in the form of ‘Flashmobs’ co-ordinated through Discord – was so much fun! Collective participation rather than individual control — created the richest dramatic results.

Moments of glitch or technical imperfection often turned out to be creatively useful, introducing unexpected textures of liveness.

Sometimes it’s the rough edges between digital and live that carry the strongest emotion.

Working with Deaf artists and creative captioners, we discovered that captioning, BSL, and sensory design are not just tools for inclusion — they can expand the artistic vocabulary of performance itself.