The Immersive 5 With Party Geek’s Paul King
The Creative Director of the team behind London’s “Hidden Figures WW2” answers The i5
London’s Party Geek has been producing experiences that mix history, cocktails, and gaming for a few years now.
Their current offering, Hidden Figures WW2, is a revival of their 2018 show which puts audiences in touch with real-life figures whose contribution to the war effort was overlooked by history, giving glimpses into lives that might otherwise be forgot. This plays out as a two hour long adventure complete with hidden passages and a secret bar.
We reached out to Party Geek to answer The Immersive 5, and Creative Director Paul King reached back.
The Immersive 5 series asks creators across the various immersive disciplines the same five questions in search of both their approach to crafting work, and the elusive nature of immersive work itself.
No Proscenium: What does “immersive” mean to you, and what terms do you use when talking about your own work?
Paul King: The best magicians play in a beautiful world between trickery and make believe. Nothing gets me lost in an experience more effectively than an illusion, which is probably why I’m so overly fond of secret passages. So as an audience member, I’m drawn to immersive theatre as a vehicle for getting lost in stories. Anything that helps me suspend disbelief is an immediate draw. Stand up comedy achieves this in a similar way to immersive theatre. As a writer and producer, interaction is the most effective mechanic I’ve found. Particular to my own work is audience interaction with assigned characters. I work with real, historical figures and craft bespoke narratives, individually experienced by each guest. I believe doing this with wit and interactive play is the most effective means for building empathy between the audience and their characters.
NP: What should every creator be thinking about first and foremost when designing for the audience?
PK: What’s your mission? You should be able to capture it in a single sentence. For me, it keeps me disciplined when writing, focuses how we build worlds and is the guiding principle when a creative team is working independently; it’ll help empower your team.
NP: What did you wish you knew when you were starting out with this stuff and what’s the one thing you’d tell a creator starting out today?
PK: Haha — I don’t think you’ve got enough copy mate!
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Start small, start with what you know. Build on that and be genuinely curious about other people’s lives. That extends to people you disagree with or even dislike. If you can do that, you’ll create great art.
Be friendly, I’ve been humbled by the kindness of this industry. Make allies and let them guide you.
NP: Why do this kind of work and not something more “traditional” that might have more mainstream appeal at the moment?
PK: You’re a smarter person than me Noah, and you certainly know a lot more about theatre than I ever will. However, I would challenge ‘traditional’. I’ve run large scale military exercises for the Royal Marines that one could easily label immersive, I also think any play that a child performs will likely be immersive. It’s much more natural and approachable than a promenade performance. Make believe is inate but we’re taught to forget it; it’s the reason why play and illusions become such important vehicles for engaging the creativity of your audience.
NP: What inspirations — and anything is fair game here — are currently shaping your creative practice?
PK: I like boxing and have done it for a long time. The staging, performance and radical presence you feel in a fight is rarely matched. I recently used my nephew’s Oculus headset to fight Ivan Drago, which was amazing! I genuinely felt like I was boxing him. I’m unsure about working with that technology but it’s always fun to have your perspective challenged. I keep thinking about how immediate it felt and how present I was in that make believe moment, it was a wonderful illusion.
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