Nick Cave will be starring in a pioneering new digital theatre show later this month, for Manchester International Festival. The production, titled Dream, is set to be an immersive and fantastical reimagining of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Cave taking on the role of a talking forest.
The show has been created in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and will combine live theatre, music and motion-capture technology. It will also be partly interactive, with the audience able to explore “the rivers, flowers and trees of a virtual midsummer forest” using cutting-edge gaming technology.
Additional plot details of Dream are still, for the time being, shrouded in mystery. According to organisers, Cave will be playing a “strange and mystical” narrator – officially called the “Voice Of The Forest” – who accompanies the audience on their viewing journey. He will be joined by seven other actors, and a symphonic score recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Jane Beese, head of music at Manchester International Festival, said that she was “thrilled” about Cave’s involvement with the project: “With his mystical voice and dark vocal tones, Cave is the perfect person to represent the forest helping audiences traverse the otherworldly land of Dream.”
The 50-minute online event – which was also partly produced by Marshmallow Laser Feast and Manchester International Festival – will be available to view anywhere in the world via the dream.online website. Audiences will need to buy a £10 for the interactive live experience, or they can view the performance for free.
Dream runs from Friday March 12 to Saturday 20, 2021. You can get your tickets here.