Last modified on Thu 6 May 2021 02.07 EDT
The Young Vic plans to livestream all of its future productions, its artistic director has said, insisting theatre can never go back to being something that can only be experienced by physically being there.
Kwei-Armah said that during lockdown he had resolved to “innovate, not just replicate” resulting in a project titled Best Seat in Your House which will use multiple cameras and allow online audiences to change what they are looking at.
The issue with Zoom plays, he said, was they are “curated through the lens” of the director. “What do I love about the live experience? Even though the director pushes me in the direction of where he or she wants me to look, I have the final say. I can choose to look at the person who is stage left. I can choose to look at the person who is stage right. I can choose to look at my fellow audience members. That’s really where the idea was born – of giving the audience the choice to change seats.”