Cora believes her VR creation can bring her best pal back with the help of a brave audience member. Together, they will perform in a never-rehearsed show about friendship in a cyber-human world. Watch two strangers catch up like best friends...best friends who may only exist in ‘the virtual’ world.
Borrowing Us is an experimental, cyborg-theatre piece about lost friendships, virtual connection, technology and the importance of memories. Our lead, Cora, lost her best friend, Ryn, a while ago. Her ex-best friend is very much alive, but refuses to speak to Cora. Anthropology and technology-obsessed Cora has created a VR environment designed to bring Ryn ‘back’ by fully immersing them in the world of their shared memories through visuals, audio, taste, smell and touch. Cora attempts to perform this immersive memory journey with a stranger, an audience member. The audience member enters the VR headset on stage with The MC's help, and from that moment on, they become Ryn, seeing the VR world and speaking lines they have never heard before. The rest of the audience watch the story unfold from their seats, seeing these strangers become best friends...or so Cora hopes.
Borrowing Us is a new piece by Electrick Village, an immersive, sensory VR theatre company. Their previous work includes Here for U (Offbeat Festival 2021), RAWTRANSPORT™ (Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2019 - Supported Artists with the WAF Grant, Offbeat Festival 2019 - Supported Artists, Exeter Fringe 2019, Talos Sci-Fi Festival 2019, Vault Festival 2020) and The Extension (Edinburgh Fringe 2018, Wandsworth Fringe 2018).
***PLEASE NOTE***
This piece will involve one audience member coming up on stage to perform with us. Please get in touch with us via email (electrickvillagetc@gmail.com) if you have purchased a ticket and would be interested in joining us on stage. We will meet with the chosen audience member an hour before the start of the piece to discuss the elements of the show and get them fitted for the VR headset. This role will involve the use of sensory elements, including taste, smell, touch, sound and sight. If these elements excite you and you would like to perform in this experimental piece, please feel free to get in touch.
Reviews for RAWTRANSPORT™:
“Escapism in some form or other balances out our predictable routines – whether that be via art, spirituality, vice, technology, a getaway – the need for a break from the everyday crucial for us all to function. Cue Electrick Village‘s brief VR installation piece RawTransport™, a quietly ambitious exploration of escapism and how this in itself further deepens our own sense of self.” - Lucy Basaba, Theatre Full Stop
“It’s brilliant. It’s clever. And it’s great fun, the evolution of a classic fairground attraction: you want to stay on and do it all over again.” - Fergus Church, The Play’s The Thing UK.
“The concept idea is impressive and the execution is flawless...the use of VR combined with sensory elements and their employment in immersive theatre is groundbreaking.”- Cindy Marcolina, BroadwayWorld UK.
For tickets please visit https://www.claphamfringe.com/borrowing-us.html