Oberon 11 | Inscape Assembly
Have you ever wanted to visit an intergalactic prison for the deceased? Have you ever fantasised about being a detective who will find the one inoccent soul in this den of criminals? If you ticked yes to either or both of those boxes, then boy, do we have some good news for you.
Presented by Inscape Assembly and Anywhere Festival, Oberon 11 is an immersive, site-specific work in which you are invited to enter a space prision in which four eccentric prisoners eagerly await their fate. As a junior detective, it is your job to work with your other fellow detectives to decide which of these prisoners has been wrongly accused. You will do this by interacting with the prisoners themselves and investigating their respective cells, some filled with potions and mathematical equations, others decorated with a Playboy poster and a basketball hoop. Afterlife space prison can get weird.
The attention to detail by the designers was *chefs kiss*. It blew me away how fantastically rich the set was - every square inch had some hidden secret clue, either in plain sight or lurking behind the surface. The designers managed to transform a rather small space into a space that was brimming with personality, history, and stories just waiting to be discovered.
The characters – ranging from playing a love-sick Wizard, a mentally-unstable, species trafficking pirate, a tea-loving French aristocrat and a seemingly normal teenage boy – completely immersed us into this world of madness and absurdity by striking the balance of being overly colourful without being cartoonish. The cast also managed to make us feel uneasy without being overly menacing in their performances.
Whilst we did not correctly indentify the innocent prisonner, it was still a satisfying journey even though we didn’t reach the correct destination. Cannot wait to see what this independent collective does next.
