The Freemasons Hall’s history as an Adelaide Fringe venue dates all the way back to 1966, when records in the “Fringe Vault” show it hosted two events: an international photography exhibition, and a “Singing Walkabout with Ernabella Mission Aborigines” presented by the Presbyterian Church.
Since then, the 1927-built, state-heritage-listed building on North Terrace has been the venue for a range of shows and activities, with one of the more notable recent activations occurring five years ago when Gluttony operated it as a second hub with three performance spaces and a pop-up bar.
This Fringe, in what may be a last hoorah given development plans for the building, the Electric Dreams immersive storytelling program presented by UK-based Crossover Labs is bringing an intriguing collection of “dome experiences” to the Freemasons that promise to take audiences to the Dark Side of the Moon and beyond.
“The experiences that we are showing are right across the board, from documentary to immersive music to more artistic experiences, but they all share one key quality: awe,” says Mark Atkin, a director of Crossover Labs and curator of Electric Dreams.
“They will make you appreciate the beauty of the natural world, wonder at the depth of the universe, and mesmerise you with trippy and startlingly original visuals.”
Dome experiences combine films shown on 360-degree screens with surround sound. The dome being used for the Electric Dreams event has come from Melbourne, directly after hosting a screening of the Super Bowl on Monday.
At 10 metres in diameter and 6.4 metres high, it reaches almost to the ceiling of the Freemasons’ Great Hall and makes a striking contrast to the room’s period features. Up to 40 audience members at a time will recline on beanbags within the dome to watch each film, and – having seen a sample – InReview can attest that it is indeed a mesmerising experience, whether you’re watching a barnacle-encrusted whale swimming directly towards you overhead or being enveloped by a trippy animated maze.
“It’s different from a cinema since what you are seeing isn’t a rectangle on a wall, which takes its cue from the proscenium arch of a theatre stage,” says Atkin, who is in Adelaide during Fringe. “The screen is curved, extending up the walls across a domed ceiling. It feels like you are inside it, so it’s way more immersive than traditional cinema.”
Dome films have taken off in recent years, with Atkin saying one reason is that the development of virtual-reality technology made people realise immersive 360-degree experiences could be created in a similar way but on a much larger scale. New work made specifically for the dome format is now being shown in refurbished planetariums all over the world as well as at pop-up events such as Electric Dreams.
Prospero Productions in Perth has made two of the films being shown at Electric Dreams, including Ningaloo: Australia’s Other Great Reef, which promises an underwater adventure exploring the World Heritage-listed, 260km-long Western Australia reef known for attracting marine creatures including whale sharks, manta rays, sea turtles and humpback whales. The film follows marine biologist Anna Cresswell as she travels in a mini submersible to witness the annual synchronised mass coral spawning, immersing viewers in a spectacular underwater world few are lucky enough to experience in real life.
Another Prospero film, Star Dreaming, looks at how Australia’s First Nations people read the night sky, as two children visit the site of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope in outback Western Australia and, through a special “door”, enter the ancient land of the Yamaji people.
The various dome films in the Electric Dreams program range in duration from 20 minutes to 50 minutes, with others including Whale Super Highway – a documentary narrated by Marta Dusseldorp that follows the journey of humpback whales from the top of WA to Antarctica – and Recombination, which features sci-fi-like landscapes and draws on themes from physics, mathematics and biology.
Perhaps most mind-bending of all is XYZZY, an Escher-like experience created by artists Jess Johnson and Simon Ward featuring “animated webs of flesh mandalas, self-replicating architecture, undulating worms, hallucinogenic patterns and messianic alien deities”, accentuated by ’90s-inspired electronic synthesiser tracks. XYZZY just won Best Art Film at Melbourne’s annual Dome Under Festival.
“We also have screenings of Coral: Rekindling Venus, a film made specially for the dome by Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, who takes us into the luminescent world of coral reefs,” says Atkin, adding that Wallworth will be giving a talk at the South Australian Museum on February 21 about “the power of science and art to change how people see the world”.
A project by the UK’s National Space Centre – which has its own planetarium and is considered a pioneer of immersive entertainment experiences – combines composer Gustav Holst’s The Planets orchestral suite, performed by the London Philharmonia Orchestra, with visual realisations of each celestial body. A 21st-century reimagining of The Planets features an electronic soundtrack.
The National Space Centre also created The Dark Side of the Moon dome experience – a creative interpretation of the classic Pink Floyd album which was made for its 50th anniversary. This, Atkin predicts, will be “one of the hottest tickets of the Fringe”.
“It reinterprets imagery you will recognise from the band’s history throughout the different tracks of the album, while also exploring space in the most mind-blowing way imaginable. The visuals are literally awe-inspiring – once you see it you will just want to watch it again.”
Electric Dreams is making the most of the Freemasons during Fringe, with the basement bar open for both artists and audience members, and a number of other shows and events being presented across various spaces.
These include the interactive “bingo meets tech” comedy show Robo Bingo, plus more theatre, comedy and magic shows in the Chandelier Room, while a series of theatrical walking tours through the Botanic Garden and the city (Shadows of the Past, Whisper Walk, and Gaia) will depart daily from the foyer/bar.
And for those in a party mood, or who maybe want to revisit their misspent youth, the “multi-sensory joyride” In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats has taken over the sprawling Sam Jacobs Function Room in the basement. Here, Atkin explains, up to 10 audience members at a time will don a VR headset and be transported to the UK rave scene of the late ’80s, when party organisers and revellers would play cat and mouse with the police trying to crack down on underground acid house parties.
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“You learn about what it was like for some people who were pioneers back in the day and you end up at a rave dancing till dawn. It really is fun… there’s some hectic feedback as well that kind of vibrates through your body.”
Details of all the Electric Dreams shows and events at the 2024 Adelaide Fringe can be found here.
This story is part of a series of articles being produced by InReview with the support of Adelaide Fringe.
Read more 2024 Adelaide Fringe stories here.
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