The National Theatre is inviting children to join them on an interactive space adventure when acclaimed theatre company non zero one launches Ground Control later this month.
A world away from your average theatre experience, non zero one uses a mixture of live video, projection, hidden cameras, mp3 players, radio frequency headphones, live sound mixing and the internet to create immersive shows in which the participants and performers interact to create a unique experience.
Ground Control will bring this innovative and fun theatrical style to audiences aged seven to 12-years-old, inviting them to step into the shoes of the people who control astronauts’ every move and their adventures in space.
The children who take on the challenge of becoming Ground Control will be asked to decide how three astronauts, soon to be woken from a three decade hypersleep for the first time since 1974, should respond to the a call of help from a newly discovered inhabited planet.
It will be up to participants to advise these groovy 70s astronauts on what the world is like today and exactly how this new planet should be run, deciding everything from the laws it should keep to to what type of cuisine it’ll specialise in.
Using a giant projection screen and a live, highly intelligent computer (well, Futuretron), the participants are given control of the technology and asked to work both in a team and individually to decide the future of their new planet.
Ground Control will play on 22, 23, 30 and 31 August in the National Theatre’s workshop space, the Duffield Studio. Full information on the hour-long show can be found on the NT’s website.