Review: Small Worlds at Liverpool Playhouse

If you want a theatre experience with a difference then The Playhouse’s latest sell out is for you. ‘Small Worlds: A Small adventure for One’ is an interactive installation which takes you on a journey through five different rooms.

Mark is a young boy who sees the world differently than other children his own age. His older brother, Dan is fighting in Afghanistan and just before he leaves asks Mark to look after his prize marbles, which he manages to lose. The story leads you through five different rooms, starting with the family’s living room in search of the lost marbles ending in the kitchen, where you are rewarded with the prize of finding them hidden away.

A pair of headphones is given to you as you enter the first interactive room and you are left alone in a tiny living room.

The narration is filtered through your headphones as you are told about the room you are in, about the photos on the mantelpiece and discouraged from eating the party food laid out on the table. You are invited to sit down and place your feet on the cut out footprints laid out on the floor. You are asked to close your eyes and to imagine the footsteps walking up to the door and then the door opening and you leaving the room. Which is exactly what happens, as soon as I was asked to open my eyes the door was opened and I was whisked off to the next room.

‘Small World’s is packed full off interaction, in fact it is impossible not to be interactive as all you want to do is to touch and look under objects, which is encouraged throughout.

As well as the story being narrated through headphones, there are also televisions hidden behind hatches or disguised as mirrors, where you interact with the character of Mark. It is a simple but clever tool that enables the story to flow and allows you to engage with an actual person rather than just a voice.

It is hard to imagine what is going to happen when you are lead into an empty theatre auditorium. Theatre convention as we know it, is instantly thrown out of the window.
I realised that that was how I had to approach this production, not with longing to be sat in the audience as an ‘audience member’ but to trust those hands that I had been placed into and to enjoy my adventure.

Designed for 12 – 18 year olds ‘Small Worlds’ is an excellent introduction to the theatre. Combining video, sound, touch and a little bit of your own imagination, it promises to engage even the most sceptical of theatregoers.

9/10

Presented by Slung Low and Fuse Theatre, Small Worlds is on at the Playhouse until Saturday 26th June. See www.everymanplayhouse.com for more details.

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