Chronic Insanity
For the benefit of Arts Council England
We are Chronic Insanity, a Nottingham based theatre company that creates and facilitates live events in a variety of traditional, found, and digital spaces. We work accessibly, affordably, sustainably, and inclusively. We are just about to finish our second project in which we stage at least 12 shows in 12 months, to both commercial and critical success. We seek to change the definition of what theatre can be by playing with form, genre, medium, and technology. We follow Staging Change guidelines, actively provide opportunities for local theatre makers from all backgrounds, and record how each production is made so people can learn from them. We hope to spend 2022 expanding our existing associate artists scheme and repeating our 12 shows in 12 months project for a third year running. We are just about to open an immersive theatre venue in Nottingham, in a cave system underneath Cryptology Escape Rooms, called The Caverns.
The three pieces of work we want to create in The Caverns between August and November 2022 are:
Why Vine Really Shut Down by Chronic Insanity
Whenever you talk about defunct social network or websites, Vine is often mentioned amongst young people as a website that was shut down before its time. The short format videos created on the platform allowed for quick and simple stories to be told with ease by anybody. Why it was shut down at the height of its popularity will forever remain a mystery. Until now…
When a mysterious compilation of videos surfaces claiming to show proof of why Vine really shut down a surreal and mystical world is unleashed, blaring fact and fiction, entertainment and propaganda, and content from different realities together to create an online tale of otherworldly happenings that feels right at home on the internet.
Why Vine Really Shut Down is part immersive digital theatre experience and part alternate reality game. A duration performance played out over multiple days and various social media channels telling an ambitious and broad story that examines inequalities in the entertainment industry, algorithmic bias, conspiracy theories, and whether you can believe everything that you see online.
The performance will be staged in late-August, consisting of multiple edits and presented across multiple video hosting sites, including Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube, to Chronic Insanity’s international digital audience, with versions of the performance available with full accessibility features. It will also be screened in The Caverns
Medusa Reloaded by Nicki Morley
Medusa Reloaded is a gig-theatre show about Medusa and the Gorgons that looks at the depiction of Medusa throughout time as a symbol of female rage, oppression, and empowerment. The characters from mythology are reimagined as a modern day girl group going on their latest world tour and the show moves with ease between ancient greek infused pop hits to serious monologues about gender representation, misogyny, and the divide between different feminist ideologies, especially when Athena shows up and a rivalry reignites live on stage.
Medusa reloaded is a script that Nicki has been working on with Chronic Insanity for two years and now, with live music and theatre starting back up again, is ready to be finally workshopped and performed to our regular gig-theatre audience in Nottingham. We know that audiences from the university Classics departments in the city, as well as general theatre and live music fans, will flock to the show once it’s released.
The performance will be staged in The Caverns in late-September to an in-person audience and will be recorded for a digital audience, with both audiences having a full suite of accessibility features available to them.
Halloween Horror by Chronic Insanity
Halloween Horror is an immersive and interactive theatre experience where the audience play escape room designers who are surveying a new underground location to build an escape room before the vengeful spirits that inhabit the cave system are disturbed and take their revenge on the wannabe developers. The audience then have to try and survive a series of challenges and solve a series of puzzles to appease the spirits and hopefully escape with their lives. The show looks at themes of gentrification, civic pride, and whether or not elements of history should be respected and upheld, while still being an exhilarating and adventurously fun experience for any audience member.
Usually escape rooms and other immersive experiences lack a strong narrative with a message, something that traditional theatre often includes to the delight of its audiences. Using our experience in both the traditional and immersive theatre spaces we’ll create one of the UK’s first truly narratively driven escape games that doesn’t just achieve a sense of entertainment, but also enlightenment and social bonding between the audience and our characters.
The immersive performance will be staged at The Caverns in late-October to coincide with Halloween. It will be performed for an in-person audience, with a special interactive video performance recorded for a digital audience to play along at home with, and both audiences having a full suite of accessibility features available to them.
Educational Resources
As part of this project, we also want to engage audiences educationally, both local creatives to the East Midlands and digital audiences on an international scale. To do this we will present an educational accompaniment for each fo the above productions.
Why Vine Really Shut Down will be accompanied by digital theatre-making education.
Medusa Reloaded will be accompanied by education about the R&D process for a live performance.
Halloween Horror will be accompanied by immersive and playable theatre education.
For each production, we'll disseminate the above educational resources in the following ways:
Hold an online workshop for East Midlands creatives in the lead up to each production
Hold a Q&A event after each in-person performance, or on instagram live after the launch of the digital show
Create 5 dynamic, short-form, educational videos for Instagram/Tiktok, to be released after each production has launched
Reviews of our previous work from 2020-2021:
★★★★ “Politically charged and brilliantly effective” - Theatre Weekly on Myles Away
★★★★ “Riveting, touching, and fully immersive” - Broadway World on Conduit
★★★★ “Spectacular” - The Upcoming on 24, 23, 22
★★★★ “The future of art and performance” - Pocket Size Theatre on Flavour Text
★★★★ “Chilling” - A Younger Theatre on There’s Something Among Us
★★★★ “Chronic Insanity have struck gold” - London Theatre Reviews on PNOC.io
“Critic’s Top Pick” - The i on 52 Souls
“Highlight of VAULT Festival 2020” - Lyn Gardner on Glitch
“Readers’ Favourite Theatre of the year, 2020” - The Guardian on Stay Safe
“Perfected the art of [digital] theatre through virtual reality” - The Stage