In partnership with the New Theatre Royal and presented as part of their Festival of the Sea, the Front Room staged Octopuses and Other Sea Creatures at The Square Tower, Old Portsmouth on the 1st March 2019.
Octopuses and other Sea Creatures delved deep into the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft and his mysterious tale ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ exploring mankind’s fear and misuse of the Ocean. This immersive experience gave us sirens from the deep, sea shaped spoken words, maritime musical musings and dance all set to poetry and phosphorescence film projections.
Dr Lighthouse (aka Roy Hanney) was commissioned to produce immersive projections that imagined an undersea world to accompany the poetry, performance and dance. It is a great location to attempt a full immersion experience and a site that had long been on the list of possible locations to work with. In the end it was an easy rig and the images created a real sense of being underwater with a projector aimed at the ceiling giving the effect of looking up at the surface from several metres under.
Dr Lighthouse also designed the promotional material for the show which included selection of visual materials, copy editing, production of marketing materials, audiogram and video clips as well as integration of these into the social media marketing campaign.
The show was not only photographed and video recorded but we managed to capture the event as a 360° video and this can be seen on YouTube either in your VR headset or as a normal video you can scroll around.
Created by:
Becci Louise, author poetry anthology ‘Octopus Medicine ‘, previous artist in residence at London’s Roundhouse
Helena Eflerova, multidisciplinary artist, whose work has included exploring the fusion of underwater live performance and video installation
Live choral sounds directed by Janet Ayres
Cinematic installations, Dr Lighthouse (aka Roy Hanney)
Directors, Aaron Holdaway (Southsea Shakespeare Actors) and John Sackett (The Front Room).
