Acclaimed writer, actor and musician Nick Cave joins the cast of RSC’s DREAM

Acclaimed musician, writer, film score composer and actor, Nick Cave, will join the cast of The RSC’s live online production of Dream.

In a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Manchester International Festival (MIF), Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) and Philharmonia Orchestra, Cave will feature as the Voice of the Forest.

Pre-recorded during lockdown, Cave’s role is a strange and beautiful character we never see but who is all around us. Audiences are invited to illuminate flowers, trees and streams in a virtual midsummer forest. Entering the forest at dusk the audience are invited to interact with a cast of seven actors. Guided by the forest itself, they must explore and regrow the forest before dawn.

Dream uses motion capture as the culmination of a major piece of cutting-edge research and development (R&D).  The pioneering collaboration explores how audiences could experience live performance in the future in addition to a regular visit to a performance venue. 

Dream was due to open in Spring 2020 as an in person and online live performance and has been recreated during the pandemic for online audiences whilst theatres remain closed. It is inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and gives a unique opportunity for audiences to directly influence the live performance from wherever they are in the world. 

Audiences will experience a new performance environment easily accessed on their mobile, desktop or tablet via thedream.online website. The performance uses the latest gaming and theatre technology together with an interactive symphonic score that responds to the actors’ movement during the show.

For more information, please click here.