Theatre is such a broad performance platform. It can play host to limitless staging, lighting and sound options that ultimately shape the course of a show and how an audience perceives it. Immersive theatre is one such genre of theatre; it really draws an audience in and brings the themes of a production to life in a unique and innovative way. It seems that new Leeds-based theatre company The52 know this, with its first major piece of theatre, titled The Window Seat, being a brilliant exercise in fresh, immersive theatre.

The Window Seat follows the journey of you, the audience member, on board a train that’s full of those weird and wonderful characters you meet on trains, from the inquisitive ones asking for tissues and painkillers to the lovers who demand to be the centre of attention (we’ve all met them, I’m sure!). You then leave the train when it arrives at its destination, the coast, and really start to get to grips with some of the characters on the train, who tell the stories behind their emotional states. Each character invites you into their own private world, taking you across the waves of the sea to the cosy confines of a forest, finishing up at a celebratory meeting at a fancy candlelit restaurant.

Immersive theatre only works when, as an audience member, you’re wrapped up in the world of the performance, by which point you’re not afraid to stray from the embarrassed giggles and awkward glances with other audience members as you wander around an inevitably linear performance space surrounded by actors who prod, poke and talk to you. The Window Seat takes you beyond this and does what it says on the tin; from the moment you step into the Stage@Leeds lobby, you’re taken out of your own world and placed into that of the characters. They recreate the hustle and bustle of a train station with ease, and it isn’t long before you’re eager to step into the theatrical fog-filled performance space, where your train carriage awaits. By doing this, The52 ensures that you’re ready to enter the world of the characters and begin to feel comfortable in the different environments you’re taken to.

While the characters are what drive the production, it’s the overall combination of lighting, sound and set design that make it shine. From the simplistic train carriage you board to the isolated beach you sit on with the characters, you feel part of an interesting and unique world. My favourite location was a forest we were taken to after the beach, where green silk vines hung from an elasticated net above us. They gently brushed against you, with performers occasionally pulling down on them to make the whole forest literally ‘breathe’ as the character told us her story. Light sliced through the vines, too, ultimately making it seem much more realistic and dream-like.

While on the whole the production worked very well and immersed the audience, there were times when I found it hard to hear the actors, and there were a few moments of uncertainty/times when I had no idea what was happening that made me less engaged. I also found it hard to empathise with some of the characters due to their lack of backstory, which overall detracted from the immersive experience.

Despite these flaws, which are really just nit-picks, The Window Seat is an outstanding effort from The52, and I’m certain that the company’s founding members Anna Turzynski and Alice Boulton-Breeze, who are both recent graduates of the University of Leeds, are very proud of this production.

The Window Seat was devised by The52 Theatre Company. For more information see the The52 Theatre Company blog and the Stage@Leeds website.