This short interview with Kirsty Wyatt was done during a brief break in the technical rehearsal for Lobster Frock’s In Pursuit of Success. It was about her experience of working as a performer during the immersive Peaky Blinder’s Festival in Septemer 2019

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Emma:        With the story arch, did you make that up or did someone provide it?

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Kirsty:         So I was given a character brief and I had to fill in all of the gaps so there were lots of us, so I was a citizen, like a resident of Digbeth. So the other people who were also that brief, we all sat together and we created individual characters within that to create a community of Digbeth and then we created relationships for how we interacted with each other and then also the other factions.

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Emma:        Ok, so there were several groups each with a brief and you devised what you were going to do within that

 

Kirsty:         Yeah

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Emma:        With audience interaction did you have, did you plan specific one on ones or did you take people somewhere

 

Kirsty:         Yeah, so there were some big spectacular moments that we all had different roles in facilitating but then we had vignettes, that’s what it’s called. We had set vignettes and then we also improvised them based on, because we did lots of improvisation in order for us to create them naturally from each other and especially as our characters evolved throughout the process

 

Emma:        And became more rich

 

Kirsty:         Yeah and more backstory.

 

Emma:        That’s really interesting because the first audiences they don’t, you don’t know as much about your character but then by the end audiences are getting really intense well developed almost real people , that’s insane. Do you find it hard to switch off?

 

Kirsty:         It was definitely really bizarre because there was this pub that you went to and you asked for irish whisky and they’d give you apple juice so you were always within the realm of being a character and if you were drinking a lot you then obviously had to get more drunk and interact differently based on that.  

 

Emma:        Would you say, a lot of people I’ve spoken to about immersive theatre they talk about it being highly structured and actually there is a narrative arch that actors and performers are moving within, were you always very very aware of that and moving things across.

 

Kirsty:         Well it depends on the production. But normally what you do is you create a character and you create a, I can’t remember what it’s called but basically if they (audiences) say “yes” to the interaction then you go one way whereas if they say “no” then you do a feedback loop and you just keep going round until you get to yes and if that’s not going to happen then you try a different tack but eventually they will always go through the different stages it just depends on which version they’re going to have.

 

Emma:        Does that mean there’s like 10 or 5 pre-determined story arcs that you’re trying to push people into or is it that they naturally get there?

 

Kirsty:         I can show you one, that would probably be easier because they’re written down, I can show you one that I did for a character. You can use that as reference.

 

Emma:        Thank you. Do you ever have problems with audiences?

 

Kirsty:          Safety mechanisms. So on Peaky Blinders. You’d say “I’m having a bad dream” and if another character hears you they pass it onto a stage manager and they will come and help you. We also had hand signals. So a stage manager could come up to you and do that (salute) and if you did it back then you were fine. However if I did that (crosses arms) then I would not be ok and they’d know to come in and help you. So there’s lots of things in place to keep you safe.

 

Emma:        When you first got there did you have to do lots of workshops or were you left-

 

Kirsty:         Yes

 

Emma:        So was that because, was that to introduce a style of acting or was that to do with how they wanted the world to function.

 

Kirsty:         Well because for this production everyone has been doing immersive theatre for ages it was more about the feeling of the production and the different atmosphere and the different factions. So mine was the Digbeth residence but then there was the Peaky Blinder’s clan and then there were the O’Carroll’s. So they all had different distinct flavours and styles so we worked on those individually and then saw how they interacted together in big spectacular moments.

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Kirsty had to return to the rehearsal at this point.