“The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps”: a Case Study for Combined Storytelling in a Theatre Play and Virtual Reality

Abstract

The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps" is a poem by Murray Lachlan Young, aimed at both children and adults. This poem has been adapted as a theatre play with a short prequel as a Virtual Reality (VR) / tablet app. We used this unique combination to explore the potential interaction between these different media elements for the level of "presence" and "immersion" in the story (i.e. the level to which one can imagine oneself within the story at the expense of the sense of physical time and space). The theatre audience had the opportunity to play the VR / tablet app in the foyer before the performance started. After the performance, a questionnaire measured participants' level of immersion and presence in the theatre play and their enjoyment of both play and app. The results showed that people of all ages interacted with and liked the app. Ratings for the play were also high and did not depend on prior engagement with the app. However, the play was liked more by adults than children, and the reverse was true for the app, suggesting a potential generation shift in multimedia story telling.

Immersive-360° theater: User experience in the virtual auditorium and platform efficacy for current and underserved audiences.

“…Assessing immersive-360°theater in terms of technology acceptance is a key part of identifying its digital inclusivity, for use by both existing and potential audiences. We know, for example, that older participants perceive VR as less easy to use (Manis & Choi, 2019), and report less enjoyment of digital storytelling (van Dam et al, 2020). Moreover, younger groups tend to be more optimistic about content digitization, while older people are more likely to perceive it as a threat (Poort et al, 2015).…”

“…For example, "Vera," an adaptation of a short story by Katherine Mansfield, has been created as a traditional film, a noninteractive 360°film, a radio drama, a holographic VR experience, an interactive role-playing game, and a printed book (Pietroszek, 2020). A similar approach was taken for the Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps (van Dam et al, 2020). This verse ballad by Murray Lachlan Young has been produced as an illustrated book, a stage-play, an audio CD, and an interactive VR game for both tablet and HMD.…”

“…This asynchronicity and use of a VR headset to view performances differentiates immersive-360°theater from both livestreaming to a screen and real-life theater attendance. Key perceptual qualities of immersive-360°theater viewed through an HMD are that it is immersive, reducing sensory awareness of the physical world outside the HMD and facilitating narrative immersion in the performance, and reactive to the viewer's head movements (Hibbard, 2023;van Dam et al, 2020). This creates a sense of physical presence: the feeling that one is "really there," attending, in the virtual auditorium (Schuemie et al, 2001).…”

sychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts Immersive-360° theatre: user experience in the virtual auditorium and platform efficacy for current and underserved audiences

“…Assessing immersive-360° theatre in terms of technology acceptance is a key part of identifying its digital inclusivity, for use by both existing and potential audiences. We know, for example, that older participants perceive VR as less easy to use (Manis & Choi, 2019), and report less enjoyment of application technologies associated with digital story-telling (van Dam, Webb, Jarvis, Linley & Hibbard, 2020). Moreover, younger groups tend to be more optimistic about content digitisation, where its perceived threat is more common in older participants (Poort, Akker, Rutten, Weda, 2015).…”

Current Perceptions of Virtual Reality Technology

“…Indeed, applications of VR are widespread, encompassing education [29][30][31][32], training [33][34][35][36][37][38], healthcare and rehabilitation [34,39,40], well-being [41][42][43][44], heritage and museums [45][46][47][48][49], theatre [50][51][52], cinema [53,54], journalism [55][56][57], non-fiction documentaries [58,59], teleoperation [60,61], product design [35,62,63], architecture [64,65], and social and business meetings [66].…”