Hello. This is the UniqueGood Experience Trend Letter. Earlier this year, Realworld announced Korea's 2024 experience trend with the keyword 'Zillion.' 'Zillion' refers to an immeasurably large number, a name chosen to express the full spectrum of contexts and experiences created through communication and participation by countless people, beyond consumer markets formed by a few trendsetters.
Among the 7 trends that make up this 'Zillion,' the section on 'Stories completed by me, the popularity of interactive content (Leveraging the Power of Interactive Content)' includes content about 'immersive theater.' What is this 'immersive theater' and what are the global trends?
This week, we want to talk about the gradually growing 'immersive theater.'
What is 'Immersive Theater'
'Immersive theater (or immersive performance)' refers to performances that eliminate the boundary (the fourth wall) between stage and audience. It differs from traditional performances in that audiences can directly communicate with actors and become more immersed in the performance itself. The audience becomes not an object watching the story from outside the stage, but a subject entering into the performance to directly experience the story.
UniqueGood Company, a leader in the experience industry, also planned a performance called 'Montage Sequence' in 2019. Audiences became witnesses to a murder case and had to investigate the crime scene and suspects directly with detectives (actors) to solve the case. As one of the early immersive theater works attempted in Korea, it received good responses with sold-out shows alongside praise as a novel attempt.
A Play You Can Never Understand in One Viewing: 'Sleep No More'
Audiences entering the stage of 'Sleep No More,' the 'McKittrick Hotel,' must choose a character from the performance to follow. The actors 'live' somewhere in about 100 rooms spanning from the 1st to 6th floors, and audiences become ghosts wearing masks to spy on their lives. A man who suddenly appears might kill the character you've been following, or if you're trailing a murderer, you might discover why they committed murder. The choice of which of the more than twenty actors to follow and what story to see is entirely up to the audience.
'Sleep No More,' an 'immersive theater' adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy 'Macbeth,' throws audiences into confusion like this. After the first viewing ends, complaints like 'What on earth was that about?' are understandable. However, the purpose of this performance is not to deliver a story unilaterally, but for audiences to complete the stage together with the actors. To fully understand the story might require dozens of viewings, but this is perhaps what makes 'immersive theater' special.
'Sleep No More,' which has recorded 5,000 performances and 2 million viewers over 13 years since its 2011 premiere, started performances in Shanghai in 2016 following London, Boston, and New York. Since Shanghai's 'Sleep No More' is currently the only performance in Asia, those who want to witness 'immersive theater' directly might consider visiting Shanghai.
You Are Already Inside the Movie: 'Secret Cinema'
Soldiers move busily among audiences dressed in patient gowns. TV screens in the waiting room show pandemic virus news. Suddenly the room goes dark and medical staff with flashlights urgently tell everyone to move. Following the medical staff without understanding why, infected people are chasing from behind. Police and soldiers desperately try to stop the infected but are overwhelmed. Can this nightmare ever end?
The above describes the '28 Days Later' performance by London's immersive performance company 'Secret Cinema.' If this were real, it would be truly terrifying, right? Like this, 'Secret Cinema's' works thrust audiences into movie scenes. They've broken the stereotype that 'movies are watched in movie theaters.'
'Secret Cinema,' which describes itself as 'Pioneers of immersive live entertainment,' has planned over 60 works and attracted more than 1 million audiences over the past 15 years. Recently, they've been breathing life into various and unique stories across genre boundaries, including 'Arcane,' an animation from the popular game 'League of Legends' universe, and Marvel Studios' 'Guardians of the Galaxy.'
'Secret Cinema's' new experiences make inconveniences like keeping venues secret until performance day and preparing dress codes seem like 'mere inconveniences.' According to one participant's review, 'It was such a unique and intense experience that watching regular movies became boring.' We hope to see 'Secret Cinema' in Korea as well.
Now It's an Immersive Theme Park: 'Immersive Fort Tokyo'
Now 'immersive theater' has grown beyond performance venues to theme park scale. 'Immersive Fort Tokyo,' opening in March this year in Odaiba, Tokyo, bills itself as an 'immersive theme park,' reportedly the world's first theme park composed entirely of two or more immersive experiences.
According to materials released on their website, they appear to be preparing immersive performances using various eras including 19th century London and Japan's Edo period, as well as diverse anime and game IPs like 'Tokyo Revengers,' 'Oshi no Ko,' and 'Identity V.'
With much still unrevealed, it's creating curiosity about what level of experience they'll deliver.
The Irony of 'Immersive Theater' Rising in the OTT Era
In an era where TV and movie theaters are losing strength to OTT (Over The Top) services represented by Netflix, why do audiences pay their money and time for 'immersive theater' that inconveniences them when countless content can be accessed with just one finger? It might be an expression of the desire to go beyond watching stories from outside the screen and become the protagonist of the story directly.
Looking forward to 'immersive theater' growing even more in 2024, we'll return next week with more new and interesting news.