Photo: Supplied.
It’s a dark and stormy night…and in the Redland Performing Arts Centre strange things are stirring… the audience is creating the ghosts that are hidden in the crevices, nooks and crannies, ghosts that will be brought to life by the Counterpilot host of the haunting.
Once through the secret tunnel and into the giant pillow fort, the ghost wrangling – and the fun – really begin. Nathan Sibthorpe, Counterpilot’s techno-troublemaker, conceived the idea of Scaredy House when commissioned by Metro Arts to make a work for young people. Company-in-Residence at the time, Counterpilot decided on an interactive horror show along the lines of Escape from Monotony, which they’d developed and produced at the Museum of Brisbane.
“It’s an intergenerational play based on deconstructing a house that scares us and inhabiting it with ghosts so that we scare the house,” says Nathan. “It’s liberating for adults to be asked to play, and for families to collaborate in that shared space, hands-on together, when we talk about things we’re scared of – but everything’s OK because we’ve got each other.”
The process involves cameras, projections, light boxes and high-tech shadow puppetry. “While the avatars are ghosts and spiders, our real fears are the ones we don’t talk about; fear of what people will think of us, of loneliness, of rejection. We worked with a range of local artists and makers to bring this world to life in a big way!”
This interactive haunting is most suitable for young people aged 7 to 10+ and their grown-ups. To be part of the great ghost muster call 3829 8131 or visit www.rpac.com.au. Scaredy House will run from January 23 to 25 for three performances.
