DREAM

Dream is a live and entirely real-time CGI theatre show, loosely based on A Midsummer Nights Dream.  The project came about as part of Innovate UK's Audience of the Future programme and was a collaboration between the RSC, Marshmallow Laser Feast, The Philharmonia and Manchester International Festival. 

Written by the RSCs head of new drama Pippa Hill and Directed by MLF's Robin McNicholas.  Artists and engineers' Arron Smith and Louis Mustill co Technical Directed the project from concept development through to delivery, working closely with the RSC's head of production and production team to build and run a multidisciplinary team of more than 50 artists, designers, engineers and producers to create this unique production.  The show was viewed by more than 60,000 people over a week of performances in the middle of lockdown in March 2021.

The live performance centred around 6 performers in a motion capture volume, puppeteering unique CGI characters who inhabited 5 square kilometres of hyper-real forest - all rendered in realtime using Unreal Engine and streamed out o the audience.  The audience could also interact and react to the show at key points through a custom webGL interface.  This combination of live CGI and audience interaction created a boundary pushing new format somewhere between theatre, film, gaming and web experience.