Guest Blog: Christa Harris On Immersive Show INSIDE PUSSY RIOT

When I was asked to direct Inside Pussy Riot, I of course immediately said yes. As a director who's worked on a lot of immersive theatre in the past couple of years, and is unapologetically feminist, this felt like the perfect production for me. However, my secondary thought was - how in the heck are we going to pull this one off?

Creating an immersive piece of theatre always comes with its challenges, but creating an immersive piece of theatre inspired by the true events of Pussy Riot's incarceration felt like a whole different ball game. And, quite frankly, it has been...

Typically, when directing previous immersive productions, my questions have always been about escapism - how do we create an environment different from the everyday that the audience want to explore, but at the same time coordinate their movement through the experience without making it seem contrived? Or how do make an audience feel completely involved and part of the action, as if they were the catalyst for each moment, even though it's been meticulously rehearsed?

We've always got tricks up our sleeves to make the magic happen regardless of the situation. But Inside Pussy Riot is not about magic. Unlike other types of immersive shows, it's not a whimsical, fantastical fairy tale, where we're submerged into an otherworldly place, or a sumptuous scandalous murder mystery, nor is it a nostalgic show about a time long forgotten.

It's about the here and now, it's about the oppression which is pulling at the strings of our so-called free world, and it's about our audiences having their voices heard and how far we will go to stand by our beliefs, just like Pussy Riot did in 2012.

So, how do we merge the theatricality of an immersive experience with the sobering reality that these events actually happened? We make the audience Pussy Riot.

The challenge of this show has come from creating a piece of theatre that can fulfil a journey whereby audiences feel like they have gained some insight into the brutality of Nadya's imprisonment and the absurdity of the arrest and trial leading up to Pussy Riot's incarceration.

But also giving our audience the constant impetus to keep fighting for their beliefs - whether it's about gender politics, LGBT rights, racial prejudice, or corruption in a capitalist state (to name a few). Our aim is to push the audience's boundaries and urge them to dedicate themselves to that belief, no matter what.

This has also been a vital element in enabling us to steer clear of the show falling into museum mode, or cultural voyeurism, and will take the audience from alienation contrasted with moments of uncomfortable proximity.

Stylistically, our challenge in how to capture the journey from imprisonment to amnesty was to try and create the environment of constant uncertainty that's surging through western politics at the moment (take, for example, the shape-shifting politics orchestrated by Putin's advisor Vladislav Surkov). We've tackled this by allowing the show to evolve from absurdity and carnivalesque, with the influence of commedia dell'arte, to sobering naturalism.

I direct immersive theatre because I adore the action of it all. If theatre can move me when I'm sat down, then perfect; if it can move me and I can be a part of it - even better. When we get it right, it's electric, it vibrates, we can touch it, feel it, be moved by it. I hope all of these elements are present in Inside Pussy Riot, but they don't exist as spectacle - they exist to challenge, to provoke and to empower the people to use their most potent weapon: their voice.

Inside Pussy Riot at the Saatchi Gallery 14 November-24 December

Picture credit: Jonas Akerlund

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