Immersive, Inclusive and Intriguing

Preview: Beneath the Streets

Hijinx and Punchdrunk Enrichment

13^th-14^th June

Secret City Centre location

The masters of immersive theatre Punchdrunk have come to Cardiff to deliver a fortnight of workshops as part of Hijinx Theatre’s exciting residency programme. These workshops, focussing on how to work as an ensemble and create devised theatre, will culminate in a unique immersive experience this weekend.

Beneath the Streets explores the hidden underworld beneath the shops of Cardiff, the concealed, dark and dirty underbelly. Punchdrunk’s enrichment director Peter Higgin says they were keen to find ‘an iconic, interesting location that resonates with people. But perhaps somewhere that they had never been before.’ The whole piece explores this relationship between what is perceived and what is hidden under the surface. What lies beneath?

The production is shrouded in mystery and Peter warns ‘we will be pulling the rug from under the audience’. Nothing will be as it seems and as each audience member roams around the space they will have a unique experience. Peter’s advice to those attending is ‘lose your friends, follow your heart and your gut, make your own path’. The production is ephemeral and the team believe it could be transformational as long as you are prepared to ‘accept a certain degree of madness’.

The cast will be made up of members of the Hijinx Academy, a professional training scheme for actors with learning disabilities and those who attended the residency, creating an inclusive and varied team. Double act Matthew Purnell and Jeremy Linnell shared their excitement for the performances saying ‘it’s a whole new experience.’

Matthew has been involved with Hijinx since 2007 and has appeared in many of their shows but he believes this will be the ‘best show ever’ and it could be ‘the highlight of your life’. Theatre maker Jeremy has been volunteering with Hijinx since January and this is his second residency with the company. He believes ‘interactive theatre is for everyone. It’s a real live experience. 

Instead of just sitting there for two hours you are free to create your own experience.’

The pair have worked together before and they make a really great team. Last time, as part of the Frantic Assembly residency, they were performing a more physical piece. This time they had to work together to create unique characters and devise dialogue to give the audience some vital information. This presented its own challenges as the first draft of the script they created was fifteen minutes long, they needed to cut it down to just three!

The feeling of collaboration is really strong with every member of the team contributing their all to the production. Jeremy says the residency is ‘a lot of fun, everyone is here to make something great together , everyone is professional and it proves anyone can be a performer if they are willing to work hard enough’.

Although it isn’t just performers who have been working hard to make this production happen. Theatre student Matthew Westcott, who is part of Odyssey, the inclusive community group for adults at Hijinx, has been roped in to help organise volunteers and work on the set. For him this has been a huge learning curve where he has learnt valuable new skills whilst creating the ‘out of this world’ environment for the production. The set was described as being like a film set, every detail matters. Matthew Westcott describes it as ‘a real, inhabitable world full of atmosphere that the audience can explore and interact with’.

More than anything it is clear that everyone is excited to share this new world with an audience. 

Performer Matthew Purnell promises it will be an ‘outstanding, surprising, cracking performance’ and adds ‘it is an honour to work on a show like this in Cardiff.’

If you aren’t already intrigued Jeremy gave one more tantalising clue: ‘pay attention to anything you’ve lost’.  

For more on Hijinx, including their residencies and the Academy click here

To find out more about Punchdrunk click here.