FAMILIES, children and curious people of all ages are being invited to take part in an augmented reality adventure in the grounds of Drummohr House, near Musselburgh.
Quest For Oz, inspired by the works of Wizard of Oz creator Frank Baum, sees the grounds of the 18th century mansion transformed into an illuminated land of Oz. It runs until Sunday, October 28.
Adventurers will be challenged to reunite the warring kingdom of Oz by finding yellow bricks which the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion have hidden.
“The Witches of the East and the West have had a big battle and it’s wrecked the road,” says Symon Macintyre, artistic director of theatre company Vision Mechanics.
Quest For Oz is a very different project to the intimate Little Light, their previous show earlier this year which saw them touring across the country with puppeteers from Jordan – the first time a theatre company in Scotland has collaborated with artists from the Middle Eastern kingdom.
In their Oz, visitors will be able to meet characters such as Glinda the Good in her Bubble Garden and seller of lotions and potions Doc Wonder, test their skills in the Mind Maze and get lost in the Carnival of Dreams.
Even bigger than last year’s acclaimed adventure show Dragons of Drummohr, Quest For Oz tells the story using a mixture of live performance, puppetry, light shows and interactive tech.
It all takes place in the woodland lit with installations such as the Monkey Gate, a 10-metre projection of the face of a flying monkey. It’s made up of thousands of smaller monkey faces – pupils from surrounding East Lothian schools.
“It’s weird and wonderful – and that indeed is rather weird,” laughs Macintyre. “The wood is beautiful and enchanted but underneath there’s the narrative that’s driving you, the challenge to collect the bricks. How you participate in the show is linked to how you spend your bricks. Do you save them all? Or do you spend some of them playing a game where you might win a lot more?”
Quest For Oz’s augmented reality elements are accessed via an app which Vision Mechanics began with Lanarkshire-based puppeteer and developer Colin Purves five years ago, before Pokemon Go. The app has since been fine-tuned to better enable a gaming-style experience where the user is the central figure in a world of choice and chance. Still, Macintyre says a handheld device is not essential.
“Plenty of people go around without the app and enjoy it. There is an analogue side to it, and lots of physical things you can see and do without it.”
The roots of the app, and of Vision Mechanics combining live performance with augmented reality, came from an idea more associated with the theatre – and with the Wizard of Oz himself.
“My idea was that the magic was all around you, but you had to access it through going behind the curtain,” says Macintyre. “Here the app is the curtain that allows you to see into this other world.”
The app is also a way by which Vision Mechanics can combine their passion for outdoor activity with the integration of tech in our lives.
“I don’t want kids to be in front of screens being inactive,” says Macintyre. “But there’s no way that I can defeat that screen. Instead, my idea was to take that screen and use it so you can run around the outdoors.”
Vision Mechanics are now based in the Big Shed, a new arts space in the former stables of Drummohr House. Home to the Emerald City for the duration of Quest For Oz, the venue
features 11 artists’ studios spaces. Findlay Lockie, who is restoring the 34-room mansion, offered the company an affordable deal.
“We lost our workshop – it’s being turned into a supermarket,” he says. “A lot of the artists are getting kicked out of Leith just now.”
Macintyre says Vision Mechanics plan to stage their events in the woods for the coming years, as well as using the shed as an arts space and workshop.
“Having a space we can afford is so important and being able to work outside is great, so we are very happy.”
Until Oct 28 (not Mon), Drummohr House and Grounds, near Musselburgh, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, tickets: £8 to £17.50, family tickets and concessions available. Catch the Emerald City Shuttle Bus at Wallyford park and ride, Musselburgh. Tickets: tickets.questforoz.org and www.visionmechanics.org
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