Drift is a multi-sensory production designed in collaboration with learning disabled young people from Leeds’ East SILC, John Jamieson School. Audience participation changes the course of the story, giving audiences a voice in the outcome of the show. Inspired by a mix of video games, we imagine a world where the audience is sucked inside the sensory world of an 80s arcade machine. With 8-bit synth music composed especially for the show, and a visually exciting set with lighting created to engage the audience, the young people will explore the different levels led by the performers.

The show will immerse the audience in the action, and will explore choices for audience members individually, about character, video game inventory, and skills acquired. With interactive props, we are putting our audience on the controls. With a team backing Player 1, and another backing Player 2, you will meet the characters, collect the light for your fight with the villain and choose our winner. Can you complete the video game levels to get us out of the game and back to the arcade?

Our performers have moments of intensive interaction with audiences throughout the show, engaging them in the levels of the game through all their senses, through touch, interaction with props, and movement around the space, all sensitively judged by how engaged your pupils are and how they communicate. No-one is expected to sit still and be quiet throughout, and we’ve found that immersing them in the show, which includes inviting them right inside our “arcade game” set, engages young people with many different needs.