The Boy Who Climbed Out of His Face, The Jetty

In the wake of Punch Drunk comes a new immersive experience from pioneers of boundary-pushing theatre, the arts collective Shunt. A disused coaling jetty on the edge of the Thames has been transformed into an innovative performance space for six weeks only. 

An Immersive Experience

Instead of a stage, The Boy Who Climbed Out of His Face takes place within a temporary space specially created out of shipping containers. Every ten minutes 30 audience members will be stripped of their shoes and socks and ushered into the 'industrial pavillion', where they will remain for 45 minutes.  We strongly suspect, given the jetty location, that water will be both a strong theme and a physical element of staging - so expect a splash.

An Intriguing Plot

Quite what happens within is a mystery. The only insight into the plot comes from an intriguing combination of literary quotations:

'I will take you up the back stairs, but I must bandage your eyes first for I never allow people see those back stairs of mine.' - Charles Kinsgley, The Water Babies

'The last word he pronounced was -- your name.' - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

So, somewhere between this classic children's story and iconic modernist work we can patch together themes of voyage, water, discovery, secrecy and deception which will build a multi-sensory meta-theatrical experience. As the underlying darkness in these these literary allusions suggests, this world within a world is not for the faint-hearted. The show comes with a caveat: those that experience phobias or panic attacks are warned there are small, confined, dark spaces which could be a trigger.

A New Challenge

Despite their reputation for boldly taking theatre away from traditional stages, this is the first time Shunt have created a production for an outdoor space; we're excited to see how the ever imaginative team incorporate the added elements and challenges of al fresco performance -- especially since the Thames-side location offers such unique potential for innovative theatre.