One week to go...

One week to go until everything goes a bit pink at the Centre. The bespoke ice-cream flavours have been ordered, the posters are going up and everyone here is getting just a tiny bit excited.

So, what's first up? It's And the Birds Fell from the Sky by Il Pixel Rosso. This is a new project by Silvia Mercuriali and Simon Wilkinson. You might recognise Mercuriali's name from Rotozaza's amazing one-on-one autoteatro experience Etiquette, which was at the Centre a couple of years ago.

In And the Birds... you become a character at the heart of the story. You're wearing video googles, and through the use of simple technology, you're taken on an anarchic, dreamy and dangerous joyride.

Mercuriali and Wilkinson describe it as an 'immersive' performance, which is something of a buzz-word in contemporary performance at the moment. Audience as participant, performer, shaper of what takes place. It's quite liberating, sometimes a bit scary, and whilst 'interactive' performance is nothing new - people have been 'participating' in experimental performance since the 1960s - it's heartening to see more people engaging with it, from big-budget Punchdrunk shows to tiny encounters at BAC's One-on-One Festival.

So if you're used to just sitting in the dark in a comfy seat watching, but have always been a little bit curious then Blysh is exactly what you need. Here's a little taster:

Trailer - And the Birds Fell from the Sky from Simon Wilkinson on Vimeo.