An Edgar Allan Poe-Inspired Immersive Theatre Experience Is Coming to a Brisbane Warehouse

'A Midnight Visit' will invite audiences into a macabre 36-room fantasy world.
Libby Curran and Sarah Ward
June 02, 2021

Imagine a fully immersive theatre experience with a choose-your-own-adventure twist and lots of macabre nods to Edgar Allan Poe, and you'll have some idea of what to expect when A Midnight Visit takes over a disused Brisbane warehouse this winter.

Unlike any theatre offering the city has seen before, this captivating experience is part performance, part playground and part film set. And, from Tuesday, July 27 it's being brought to life across 36 rooms of an eerie Fortitude Valley warehouse on Robertson Street.

Audiences will find themselves transported into a dream world that takes its cues from those notoriously macabre works of Edgar Allan Poe, as imagined by a 100-plus team of local actors, circus performances and burlesque dancers, plus a crew of innovative sound, film-set and costume designers. Expect an air of David Lynch, some Stanley Kubrick vibes and even a hint of Stranger Things, with a spot of steampunk thrown in for good measure.

A Midnight Visit, Sydney by Anna Kucera.

"We're not simply responding to or inhabiting the space — we're creating a fully formed fantasy world for audiences to explore freely," explains Kirsten Siddle, by co-creator and director of Broad Encounters Productions, the company behind the event.

"The experience explores themes of death, impermanence, madness, guilt, love and memory — just the lighter things in life. Set inside one of Poe's dreams (not that you need to know anything about the master of the macabre), it's a place where the characters from his life and his literature collide. It's sometimes funny, sometimes sexy, sometimes wistful, and yes, sometimes a little bit scary."

The one-of-a-kind experience took over a Newtown warehouse in 2018, then headed over to Perth, before hitting up Melbourne in 2019.

A Midnight Visit will head to Brisbane from Tuesday, July 27, taking over 95 Robertson Street, Fortitude Valley. Tickets start from $49 and are on sale from 9am on Wednesday, June 2.

Images: A Midnight Visit, Sydney by Anna Kucera and Tim Da-Rin.

Published on June 02, 2021 by Libby Curran
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