DONMAR WAREHOUSE, in association with ENGLISH TOURING THEATRE, SCANLAB PROJECTS and TRIAL AND ERROR STUDIO
Co-created by Ella Hickson, Sacha Wares and ScanLAB Projects
ADULT CHILDREN is an Official Selection for the inaugural Belfast XR Festival taking place on Wed 9 Nov 2022 at The Black Box. Full programme and tickets on sale now
It makes its Asian debut at the Kaohsiung Film Festival from 14 – 30 October 2022
This follows selection at the 2022 Luxembourg Film Festival and 2022 BFI London Film Festival – LFF Expanded.
During the 2020-2021 Covid lockdown, while our physical space was closed for essential works, Donmar Associate Sacha Wares’ new company Trial and Error Studio, together with writer Ella Hickson and ScanLAB Projects, created this poignant virtual reality play in a digital replica of the Donmar auditorium.
Charting the emotional journey of a year, ADULT CHILDREN examines the complex fragility of relationships in a time of social distance, exploring the shifting needs between families and friends, young people and old, performers and audiences and between ourselves and the strangers we were asked to protect. The theatre environment, locations and over fifty performers and audience members were all being separately captured using groundbreaking 3D scanning techniques, creating a record of this unique moment in time when we could not be together in person.
ADULT CHILDREN is a co-creation between Ella Hickson, Sacha Wares and ScanLAB Projects, with spatialised sound by Gareth Fry, original music by Adrian Lee, movement by Leon Baugh , costumes by Kinnetia Isidore and lighting consultancy by Prema Mehta.
Developed for the Donmar by Trial & Error, Ella Hickson and ScanLAB Projects from [Layer], an original podcast commission by ETT and Storyglass for their series “That Podcast”.
★★★★
“A real journey, melancholic and insightful”
WHATS ON STAGE
★★★★
“I was able to sit on a bench, don headphones and a VR headset and be transported into the theatre”
THE STAGE
★★★★
“A beautiful depiction of community, family and especially isolation”
THE TIMES
Access – UK Performances
The experience will be shown using virtual reality headsets. For visitors with vision impairment or low vision, the following will be available:
- An audio introduction is available via the VocalEyes website here.
- The experience includes a fully spatialised sound design and has been conceived from the outset to be complete as an audio experience with or without the VR component.
The experience includes the use of on-ear headphones. For visitors who are Deaf or hard of hearing, the following options are available:
- BSL introductory information
- Large over-ear headphones which can encompass a behind-ear hearing aid.
- A volume control allowing independent reduction of the volume in the left or right ear
- A 3.5mm mini-jack socket if you have a direct input cable for your hearing aid
- A personal induction loop if you have a hearing aid with a T-setting
- A captioned version
CREATIVE TEAM
CO-CREATORS ELLA HICKSON, SACHA WARES and SCANLAB PROJECTS
SOUND DESIGNER GARETH FRY
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR LEON BAUGH
COMPOSER ADRIAN LEE
COSTUME DESIGNER KINNETIA ISIDORE
LIGHTING DESIGN CONSULTANT PREMA MEHTA
CASTING DIRECTOR ANNA COOPER CDG
CASTING ASSISTANT THOMAS BAILEY
SHOOT PRODUCTION MANAGER JOSEPH MOREL
STAGE MANAGER SHANNON MARTIN
COVID SUPERVISOR RENASHA KHAN
XR PRODUCTION
MATTHEW SHAW
TOM BROOKS
JAMES WHITE
JACQUES PILLET
GREY GRIERSON
CAST
B – PRISCA BAKARE
HUSBAND – TOBI BAKARE
SAM – ISAAC BAKARE
BABY – EZEKIEL BAKARE
NEIGHBOUR – NABIL ELOUAHABI
BLOKE – BERUCE KHAN
A – JODIE MCNEE
MUM – ANNIE TYSON
NARRATOR – ROBIN
Supernumeraries:
KATE ANSTEY, LINDON ALEXANDER, JAN VAN DER BLACK, OMER BOR, LIEVE CARCHON, BUNNY COOK, SEAN CROFT, TYSON DOUGLAS, OZER ERCAN, SAMMY GLOVER, RENASHA KHAN, CATTY MARRIN, MICHAEL SKELLERN
Virtual audience:
TANYA AANDERAA, LEON BAUGH, MARC BENGA, HANNAH BRISTOW, TONI BROOKS, TOM BROOKS, LIEVE CARCHON, ALICE CESCATTI, JESSE CESCATTI-MCFARLANE, MAXWELL CESCATTI-MCFARLANE, JENNIE COOK, ANNA EDWARDS-MCCONWAY, RUPERT FAWCETT, JENNIFER GLEAVE, ELLA HICKSON, RAMIN GRAY, GREY GRIERSON, AMY HATHAWAY, RHYS HOLLAND, JESSICA HENNESSEY, LISA HICKEY, BARNEY ILEY, KINNETIA ISIDORE, CHRISTINA KOPKA, ALICE LOUISE, IMOGEN MACKENZIE, SHANNON MARTIN, GERRY MCRANOR, ALEX MERRY, GRAHAM MICHAEL, SASHA MILAVIC DAVIES, FREDDIE ODONG, MEGAN ONG, JACQUES PILLET, SIMON PINK, JULIA PHELAN, RUAIRI PHELAN, NANCY PHELAN, JONATHAN PURKISS, REECE RICHARDSON, MARK SHAER, MATTHEW SHAW, BENJAMIN SMITH, REBECCA TARRY, MARY TILLETT, KIRSTY TERRY, RACHEL THOMAS, DOUGIE WOOD
CONTENT ADVISORY
We produce a set of content advisories for each production. These detail any content that we think you should be aware of. We try to keep spoilers to a minimum on these advisory pages, but you may find out details that give away key elements of the plot if you read them.
Click here to read the content advisory for Adult Children.
ACCESS
The experience will be shown using virtual reality headsets. For visitors with vision impairment or low vision, the following will be available:
- An audio introduction is available via the VocalEyes website here.
- The experience includes a fully spatialised sound design and has been conceived from the outset to be complete as an audio experience with or without the VR component.
The experience includes the use of on-ear headphones. For visitors who are Deaf or hard of hearing, the following options are available:
- BSL introductory information
- Large over-ear headphones which can encompass a behind-ear hearing aid.
- A volume control allowing independent reduction of the volume in the left or right ear
- A 3.5mm mini-jack socket if you have a direct input cable for your hearing aid
- A personal induction loop if you have a hearing aid with a T-setting
- A captioned version
WITH THANKS
DONMAR WAREHOUSE ASSOCIATE SPONSORS
ALI AL-HASANI
OMER BOR
TOBY COFFEY
ANDREW HUGHES
ANNETTE MEES
LOUISE AND BENJI QUAH
SONICA STUDIOS
VALERIE WESTON