You walk into the dark. You close your eyes; you open your eyes. You can’t tell the difference. There’s a voice in your ear. Move forward, it says, go forward. There’s a device in your hand, a kind of mechanical automated compass. It tells you which direction to move in. You feel the pointer with your fingertips. Shuffling, a little afraid that you might stumble and fall, you walk on into the darkness in the direction you’ve been shown. You give your trust to the technology; the technology does not fail you.

This isn’t a simulation of a disastrous Mars landing, although it feels as though it could be. It isn’t a new videogame, although the experience of relying utterly on a technological guide through an unfamiliar, unmapped space reminded me unmistakably of videogame navigation. It’s a theatre piece: a work called Flatland by company Extant whose director, Maria Oshodi, is blind and makes work that can be experienced in precisely the same way by blind and sighted audiences. It’s an example of how theatre is becoming increasingly interactive, participative, immersive. And to my mind, it’s an example of how videogame culture and ideas are bleeding out into other artforms.

Read the rest of the article on The Guardian. Written by Naomi Alderman.
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