Virtual Dream Reality Check: A Case of Interactive Digital Theatre from the Royal Shakespeare Company

The proliferation of digital theatre signals a new era of theatrical experiences. The Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) Dream is a recent example of how theatre companies are integrating cutting-edge technology to revolutionise their performances. Emerging from the Audience of the Future (AF) program, Dream combined gaming and theatre technology to create a virtual world for audiences to inhabit and explore digitally. The production incorporated motion-capture technology and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, allowing seven actors to perform live from a purpose-built studio while audiences simultaneously accessed their performance from a compatible device via a bespoke website (https://dream.online). The resulting experience combined live and virtual performance elements to connect global audiences.This venture into technologically enhanced theatre, however, raises questions about the potential implications of audience engagement with digital productions. In this paper, we question how RSC's Dream combined both live and virtual theatre experiences to offer a more interactive viewing experience. We argue that while Dream signalled an exciting step in the development of digital theatre, the interactive features revealed some discrepancies between RSC's goals and the degree of involvement delivered. We thus contend that for theatre organisations to incorporate digital technologies, they must tend to the nuances of technological interventions and weave them seamlessly with theatrical elements to retain the fidelity of the theatre experience.

Ideals of ‘Britishness’ reproduced in the musical adaptation of David Walliams’s The Boy in the Dress at the Royal Shakespeare Company

This article examines the use and purpose of the nostalgic interventions in the latest Royal Shakespeare musical, The Boy in the Dress, and considers the implications of utilizing a mythologized, rose-tinted past on the creative production of national identity. It questions the meanings which are produced when a government subsidized, national theatre company with an international reputation eliminates the female voice from the stage and represents the United Kingdom as English, predominantly white and middle class. In addition, this article deconstructs the performances of gender fluidity depicted in the show and widens the acknowledged interpretation of cultural appropriation, when applied to race, to include gender.

Royal Shakespeare Company‘s #dream40

William Shakespeare is one of the greatest authors of the English language and is present in multiple school curricula. However, reading Shakespeare in classrooms can be a challenge for both teachers and students. In schools, adaptations from literature to social media platforms, such as #dream40, a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, remain not fully explored. In this paper, this production is presented as a possible ally in the effort of bringing the English canon closer to the students’ reality, making the Bard more engaging and accessible, since this production uses mechanics that are part of most students’ daily lives on social networking platforms, such as the hashtag that appears in the title of this production; besides, #dream40 is closely aligned with our contemporary paradigm of worldview.