Remote

‘We’re here to help you be more like people like you,’ says a man with a sing-song voice, sitting at a desk with an iPad in a dimly lit room in west Euston.

No, I haven’t joined some kind of weird cult – this is immersive theatre, but not as you know it. Rather than scrabbling round after a cast of actors, trying to follow the juiciest plot lines, here the entire audience is seated in front of a stage where our two ‘hosts’ invite us to make decisions that will shape the play’s narrative. It’s like a choose your own adventure story book.

‘Remote’ is the latest production from interactive theatre-makers, Coney, who invite the audience to play an active role in their shows. We’re each given a white card and, throughout the show, we’re faced with two options for each scenario – from choosing the name of the main character, to deciding whether or not to fire a colleague on her birthday. We vote by raising our cards, or keeping them down; involving everyone in the decision-making process whether they like it or not.

The audience starts off a little tentative, before realising that we can be as reckless as we like, as if we’re playing a real-life video game. Although, with witty references to Uber, flat whites and Boris Johnson, the play isn’t completely detached from reality.

Towards the end we’re asked if we want to push a red button. We’ve got no idea what the consequences will be. Do we vote to push it? Of course we do.