‘Audio adventures’ are coming to outdoor hotspots in Stoke Newington from December, giving people the chance to escape into a fantasy world while walking around their local area. Actors Max Gell and JimJack have set up Fable Feast, a creative company that pushes the boundaries of theatre, bringing stories to life in a COVID-safe way.
Fable Feast will put QR codes in locations around Hackney. Anyone can have an “immersive audio adventure” by scanning a QR code with their phone and putting in their headphones, explained JimJack.
One of the audio experiences they are hoping to set up will be at St Mary’s Church, Stoke Newington, in December. JimJack described it as “a site-specific adventure where we’ll turn the churchyard into a fantasy world” for anybody to enjoy for five minutes.
The experiences are ‘ambisonic’, meaning 360-degree audio is used: “It tricks the ear and the mind […] We can make it sound like you are in the middle of a jungle, or that you are surrounded by a group of people.” The aim is to offer unique events that encourage passers-by to “engage with the space”, said JimJack.
Another immersive experience will appear in Clissold Park, in a spot overlooking the lake. Fable Feast have chosen their folkloric poem ‘Jenny Greenteeth’ for this location, since it is set there, overlooking the bullrushes. “We’re going to try over the next few months to dot around so that people have a few things to interact with in the park,” said Max.
At the start of the first lockdown, the actors were writing scripts in preparation for the theatres reopening. But they remained closed, so the pair came up with the idea of Fable Feast instead – ‘bring your own device’ experiences that take place outside.
While the creative industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, JimJack said that creating his own work this year has been “incredibly empowering”.
“I think it’s kept us mentally strong as well,” Max added, explaining: “If we hadn’t changed direction and stuck with writing [play scripts], we wouldn’t have been doing anything with momentum, we would have been waiting for that thing to happen.”
Max described the venture as “future-proof” and said that “people are finding new ways of experiencing stories […] – ours is one of them”.
“In times of hardship and adversity, creatives tend to find ways to slip through those gaps and make something out of it,” said JimJack.
