Facing Cities XR

In 2018, Very Theatre and WERC Collective from the Netherlands embarked on the creative journey of Facing Cities, undergoing residency development of the project in two different countries and a work-in-progress presentation. Originally scheduled to premiere at the Northern Sun Art Festival in the Netherlands in 2020, the performance of Facing Cities was canceled due to the pandemic.

After completing a remote version of the performance, Very Theatre continued to explore the possibilities of translating Facing Cities into different forms, subsequently developing an XR version of the work. Combining VR technology with theatrical performance, the project developed a 6DoF environment, allowing the audience to move freely in a virtual space. Through this, a space is constructed where people from Taiwan and the Netherlands, from opposite ends of the world, can meet virtually, creating a juxtaposition of a world where the audience can interact and respond in real-time with, but at the same time cannot touch.

The goal of this project, essentially, is to realize the fantasy of “people from opposite ends of the world meeting in the digital realm.”