What virtual reality owes to the stage

By 1843 intern

Everywhere you look there is mess. Plastic bags blow across the campsite, getting stuck on fences or in puddles of sludge. As you walk, you catch people watching your progress – not hostile, just curious and impassive. The sky is slate grey and the temporary structures of canvas and plywood that pass for houses squat shapelessly in the mud, their forlorn ranks only just approximating streets. Welcome to the Jungle, Calais.

I haven’t actually been to this refugee camp – at least not in person. The National Theatre in London has given me a virtual-reality headset, which allows users to enter the world of a project called “Home”. The first piece from the theatre’s VR Storytelling Studio, it tells the story of a refugee named Aamir. He never appears himself – we hear his words about his long flight from Sudan through an actor’s voice – but everything we can see of the camp is from his point of view. Sometimes we are walking through the dirt, sometimes sitting inside one of the tents as the wind whips at the canvas, and all the while the voice tells a story of violence and fear. As you follow the narrative you are free to look wherever you like, exploring the camp’s grim atmosphere.