We’re very pleased to welcome our first resident of 2015, Andrew Crofts. Andrew is one of The Larks, a group who combine the spectacle of theatre with the agency of play.

During the residency Andrew will work on an upcoming project, Room Zero. This is an immersive digital theatre experience where a participatory audience become trapped in a room and must work together to escape. Their captor is invisible – yet ubiquitous – and nothing is as it seems; sitting on a chair turns on a light, objects disappear in drawers, a tap turns on the radio and a screen reveals characters trapped in hauntingly similar, increasingly surreal rooms. Participants piece together the story through their interactions with the characters on the screen and the objects in the room until they outsmart their captor and escape.

The Larks work with unexpected blends of gaming, interactivity and the theatrical. They are fascinated by the use of game structures to tell stories, and are passionate about engaging with ‘the now’. Their work is heavily interactive and reactive. Participants are constantly reminded they are part of the unfolding story; making decisions, taking responsibility, affecting outcomes. Through this game-theatre interplay they create a powerful and immediate platform to address topics which may otherwise seem difficult or inaccessible. As such their work has many parallels with ours at Blast Theory, and we are thrilled to have Andrew working alongside us.

Find out more about The Larks and their work.