Stranger Things meets David Lynch at new FRINGE WORLD show A Midnight Visit
Posted in Media Releases
Part choose-your-own-adventure, part theatre, part film-set, part playground; the smash-hit performance A Midnight Visit will takeover Girls School for the 2019 FRINGE WORLD Festival.
The historic and castle-like Girls School in East Perth will be transformed into an incredible 34-room performance space for the not-to-be missed show, heading to Perth direct from a stellar and extended 12 week Sydney season.
Using the works and worlds of the macabre master Edgar Allan Poe as inspiration, the show takes audiences on an adventure like nothing seen in Perth, where no two visits are the same.
Inspired by experiences like the famed Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NYC’s Sleep No More and escape rooms across the globe, FRINGE WORLD Director Amber Hasler said that the Festival was excited to be partnering with Broad Encounters Productions to bring this fantasy-world experience to Perth.
“A Midnight Visit is an absolute next level experience in a historic Perth building. Since FRINGE WORLD activated the building for Girls School Cinema in winter, audiences have been craving the opportunity to explore and engage with this incredible art-deco building, but instead of classrooms, you won’t believe what you’ll find! A Midnight Visit is a thrilling experience and a must-see highlight of the 2019 Festival”, Ms Hasler said.
This innovative use of space for A Midnight Visit melds the talents of artists from different genres, including sound design and composition from video game makers Kpow, and joined by a cast of popular Sydney and Perth performers. The enchanting dream world is brought to life across multiple rooms at Girls School and includes an on-site bar, The Raven’s Rest.
“The experience is set inside the dream of a schoolgirl obsessed with Poe, not that you need to know anything about the man. Just like a dream things spin into all kinds of directions - sometimes silly, sometimes sexy, sometimes wistful, and yes, sometimes a bit scary,” A Midnight Visit Co-Creator and Director Danielle Harvey said.
“We are big fans of experiences that immerse audiences in a fantastical world that uses all the senses. We know that audiences are craving an opportunity to explore freely, engage their curiosity and creativity, to get amongst it and be transported and be inspired and excited by something totally unique and completely extraordinary,” said Kirsten Siddle, Co-Creator and Creative Producer.
The fantasy world created by A Midnight Visit draws from steam-punk, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and contemporary classics like Stranger Things. Visitors will receive hints at what’s in store in emails from the Girls School’s ‘Headmistress’ after booking. As they say, fortune favours the bold!
Girls School in East Perth was Perth’s first Girls School for thirty years, then a Police HQ for fifty years and now this historic building will be home to this epic performance work for FRINGE WORLD 2019.
A Midnight Visit at FRINGE WORLD Festival 2019
Where: Girls School, 2 Wellington Street East Perth 6004
When: Season run 24 January to 3 March 2019. Preview performances from 22 January
Cost: From $46 to $82
For tickets and information visit fringeworld.com.au
For information visit www.amidnightvisit.com
A Midnight Visit is presented by Broad Encounters Productions in partnership with FRINGE WORLD.
The full 2019 FRINGE WORLD Festival program is on sale now at fringeworld.com.au
FRINGE WORLD acknowledges the support of Girls School partner Australian Development Capital.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT A MIDNIGHT VISIT
Media reviews
“A Midnight Visit took all the coolest things in Sydney and combined them into one unforgettable experience. Immersive theatre. Popup abandoned warehouse bar. And last but not least, Edgar Allen Poe.” The Plus Ones
“A MIDNIGHT VISIT is unpredictable, illusive, intrinsically designed for deception…The angel is in the detail here and the devil is loose in the imagination.” Sydney Arts Guide
“Expect an air of David Lynch and some Stanley Kubrick vibes, with a spot of steam-punk thrown in for good measure.” Concrete Playground
“An exciting and strange piece of immersive theatre” Sydney Morning Herald
“A theatre experience that lets audiences choose their own adventure . . . a disturbing dreamscape has been painstakingly created, where the real and fictitious worlds, characters, obsessions and personal demons of American writer Edgar Allan Poe collide and collude with more contemporary references such as Twin Peaks and Stranger Things.” ABC Arts
A Midnight Visit was originally created in Sydney in 2018 by Broad Encounters Productions in partnership with Sydney based production company Groundswell Productions.
BROAD ENCOUNTERS PRODUCTIONS
A disrupter, enabler and agent for innovation, Broad Encounters works creatively with artists and other brave minds to fashion live performances and experiences that matter. Designed by creative and cultural polymaths, Danielle Harvey and Kirsten Siddle, as a response to the need for unique productions that excite the imagination. Always conceived with the audience experience as the priority, a Broad Encounters production punches through to the extraordinary.
ABOUT GIRLS SCHOOL
The historic 1930s Old Perth Girls School building is iconic in its ‘Egyptian Art-Deco’ grandeur. The castle-like building operated as a school for thirty years and then a Police centre for fifty years. Some remember going to school there. Others remember going there for traffic branch business. A few remember going there to visit major crime and the dog squad. Some of them are still in prison.
FRINGE WORLD activated the venue in winter for Girls School Cinema and now this historic building will be home to A Midnight Visit, an epic immersive theatre work coming direct from a sensational sell-out debut in Sydney. These activations are the first stages in FRINGE WORLD’s longer-term activation plans for a thriving creative precinct at Girls School.
MEDIA CONTACTS
For all A Midnight Visit and FRINGE WORLD Festival media enquiries, please contact:
BUZZ MARKETING
Lucy Gibson
+61 8 9227 0588 / 0402 549421
l_gibson@buzzmarketing.com.au