Monster is an innovative audio experience for Halloween created by Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Research and Development and written by Brad Birch.
Our Development Producer in Cardiff, Helen Perry, introduces Monster, describing how Covid derailed the original plans for Monster to be a site-specific experience, but Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ R&D rescued the project in a way that makes it available to everyone. Writer Brad Birch explains why the story is still the most important thing and why horror is the perfect genre for this kind of technology.
Experience Monster on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Taster website or Listen now on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds
Watch the trailer for Monster
2020 has been an extraordinary year. We’re all living in a horror of sorts. And although the creative process is never smooth, little did we know how much our innovative audio project with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Research and Development would be affected by the current crisis. Less known still was how, like a snake eating its own tail, art would imitate life. We began the creation of Monster, written by welsh playwright Brad Birch with the intention of hosting it as a one-off installation at Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Cymru Wales' newly opened Central Square. We were going to create a theatrical ‘haunted house’ experience incorporating the latest technology whilst utilising everyday devices to make an immersive sensory drama about a global pandemic in which homes become invaded by the undesired.
Fast forward to an unprecedented Covid world and the whole nation finds themselves effectively trapped in their homes through lockdown. So with a bit of recalibration, and via Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Taster, we are now able to bring the monsters to the listeners. We are enabling you to create your own ‘haunted house’ within your own home.
Monster is a lights down, listen closely, innovative drama that can be experienced from the comfort of your living room. Though quite how comfortable you’ll be will depend on how much you want to immerse yourself in the drama - connect more devices & position them where you want in order to orchestrate the level of horror. You make your own unique experience without ever having to step outside!
Here’s the writer, Brad Birch’s own take on the project:
As a scriptwriter, it’s rare to be learning the technical capabilities of a medium whilst writing for it. As tempting as it was to use every tool and trick available to us, it felt important that Monster was more than just a parlour game. We all felt the experience had to be rooted in story, and that the characters and the world had to be vivid enough for this to be able to stand on its own as an audio drama. We couldn’t allow ourselves to think we could paper over cracks with flashy technology, and we also understood that the best showcase for multi-device orchestration would be with an engaging story.
Delyth played by Demi Letherby
I think horror is the perfect genre for this kind of technology. Horror changes our relationship to our environment. When I was a kid, my bedroom always used to give off a weird kind of hostility whenever I’d read a Stephen King before sleep. And the living room felt that little bit colder whenever I used to stay up late and watch a movie like Blair Witch. Or at least that’s how it felt. It’s not that the spaces became more alive, it’s that I became more aware of their deadness, of the fact that I, with my breathing and movement, was a disturbance. I had unsettled the order of the room. As a genre, horror sets fire to our senses. The creaks and groans of the house become part of the experience. Horror affects the whole body – it’s the perfect genre for pushing the boundaries of what is possible in this medium.
Newsreader in Monster played by Sule Rimi
I wanted to write a story that would evoke the kinds of ghost stories I grew up with. Stories about haunted houses tend to be about order and disorder, things out of place. This is the story of a mother and a daughter in crisis, trying to make sense of what has happened to them while the world around them - and around the audience - turns upside down.
The show had a necessarily long gestation, allowing for back and forths between us and technical team – sharing and responding to ideas, offering solutions and finding new ways of thinking about how we all do our jobs. As the writer on the project I knew I had to be adaptable. I had to be prepared to be told that some things wouldn’t be possible and have to scale back. But in actual fact, I found that the majority of the conversations were about pushing further, adding more, testing limits. I think we’re at a really exciting moment for audio drama. There were things that were possible but we decided against using on this project, so I look forward to whatever comes out next.
Experience Monster for yourself now on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Taster website or Listen on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds