Outside Inside Out
Outside Inside-Out was the inaugural show of the black box ‘Exfed Theatre’ in Harringay’s Warehouse District. The performance was a dance theatre work, staged in a sound and light installation designed by artist Jack Wates. The space was conceived as an instrument comprised of translucent screens and a forest of thick elastic strings that were animated though dynamic lighting. A live soundtrack of minimal psyche–rock was provided by the duet Marion Andrau and Mad-kid-Library.
The piece is a sequence of short stories with twisted connections; a work of magical realism that weaves together dreams and reality in a world of sound, light, space and vibration. Characters' depressions and anxieties manifest themselves in physical changes and reverberations in space, which in turn affect their moods and movements in a dynamic feedback loop.
Dream worlds collide with reality in a series of exterior and interior spaces: a forest, a house, an open door and a window.
The set design evolved into the piece Watch Sound Hear Light Play, an interactive sound and light installation developed by Jack Wates and Thomas Blackburn for the Brighton Digital Festival.
"The set was a microcosm of evocative metaphors and I was taken on an emotional journey through stories spanning coming of age, sexuality, fear and pain. Memories and emotions were being continually evoked through the immersivity of the experience combining sound, movement and light."
- Jeanetta George
"A dreamlike performance. Something about the actors and dancers performing within a musical instrument, the lighting and the live music made it feel like you were in the head of the characters experiencing their thoughts and fears along with them. Sexual and darkly hilarious at the same time as being beautiful, nostalgic and hypnotic."
- Louise Perrone
"Persona Collective immersive theatre shows, are the most prolific and ambitious projects I have come across in the past two years. They are undeniably pushing the boundaries of experimentation, constantly questioning what live performance means today. Their scenarios are visually and conceptually curated to the minimum detail, and yet they leave space to the audiences to be part of it. I truly believe Persona Collective artistic research will have a big impact on the theatre community and beyond..." - Marcela Iriarte Villa Lobos
Cast & Creators
Inda Pereda
Margherita Franceschi
Megan Hatto
Mor Jessica
Jesus Capel Luna
Sabrina Kelly
Misha Willowkin Crawford
Ivan Galvez Fuentes
Iante Roach
Margherita Polo
Team
Rocio Ayllon - Artistic Direction
Jack Wates - Stage & Lighting Design
Alex Mead & Jack Wates -
Carpentry & Construction
Thomas Blackburn - Sound & Light
Martha Welles - Costume Design
Musicians
Marion Andrau - Drums
Daniel Raphael - Guitar
Filmmaking
Alex Mead
Remy Lamont
Vaskar Kayastha - editing
Sound Engineer
Joe Button
Soundtrack Film
‘419 Chop Your $’ by Liberez
Collaborator
New River Studios
Behind the Scenes
Outside inside-out
The space is conceived as a sort of instrument and comprises a forest of elasticated strings that creates sound and are animated through dynamic lighting.
"This piece was a genre for itself, I lost myself in it’s imaginative architecture space, it was like being inside of an instrument, at other times like being inside someone else's dream." - Kate. J
Trailer Outside Inside Out, 2016, London
Brighton Digital Festival
Persona Collective seeks to involve local communities, including both amateur and professional performers, in co-creating its shows, while also using buildings and spaces that are either overlooked or at risk of slipping from living memory
Watch Sound Hear Light Play
The set design for Outside Inside Out evolved into the piece
Watch Sound Hear Light Play, an interactive sound and light installation developed by Jack Wates and Thomas Blackburn
for the Brighton Digital Festival.
“Conceived as a kind of musical instrument, the public are invited to play the strings to create sound and influence lighting in the gallery. Re-configuring elements of their recent dance theatre performance, Outside Inside Out, they have produced an interactive gallery-based installation to investigate the role of digital technology in our engagement with environments. By creating a dialogue between people interacting on an intimate scale inside the gallery, and those passing by or observing from outside, the duo explore how people can interact with their environment through play and investigate the effect of light and sound on these interactions.” - Onca Gallery, Brighton