Creating Alma Mater

‘The world’s first piece of iPad theatre. Eerie, unsettling and very, very clever ****’
− The Independent.

Alma Mater is a filmic tour for one that fuses high-technology with Fish & Game’s trademark lo-fi charm to create a piece that sits between theatre, film and installation. Individual audience members enter a specially constructed, full-scale child’s bedroom to immerse themselves- via iPad- in the world of a little girl in this handheld, 21st century fairy tale. With an original score by John De Simone performed by experimental octet Ensemble Thing and cinematography from award-winner Anna Chaney, Alma Mater is a haunting meditation on family, familiarity and growing-up.

‘A spine-tingling encounter****’ The Guardian
‘Wonderfully strange and suggestive ****’ The Sunday Times
‘A wholly new theatrical experience****’ The List

Alma Mater has delighted thousands of visitors around the world at seasons in Edinburgh, Melbourne, London and Cologne. Over 100 articles, interviews and reviews have been written or broadcast about Alma Mater in four continents and six languages. The piece has won critical acclaim on its travels so far with over 20 four and five star reviews from major papers.

Reviews

‘beautiful… completely different… unmissable’ ***** review – British Theatre Guide

‘subtle, complex, beautiful, haunting’ **** review – The Herald

‘tiny, beautiful, wholly new theatrical experience’ **** review – The List

‘spine-tingling’ **** review – The Guardian

‘eerie, unsettling and very, very clever’ **** review – The Independent

‘joyful, strange and absorbing’ **** review – The Scotsman

‘elicits a pleasureable tingle of unease… wonderfully strange and suggestive’ **** review – The Sunday Times

‘a new type of personal virtual theatre’ **** review – Broadway Baby

‘weird, wonderful, creepy and touching’ **** review – The Telegraph

‘mesmerising’ **** review – Informed Edinburgh

‘beguiling cinematic journey’ **** review – Pick of The Day – The Metro

‘lovingly tender but also subtlety chilling’ **** review – Hairline Fringe

‘haunting: a whole new way of sending us down the rabbit-hole’ **** review – What’s On Stage

‘a powerful, unsettling experience’ **** review – Exeunt Magazine

‘creates a new, and entirely mesmerising world that transcends theatre, film and storytelling to become a whole new genre.’ **** review – The Skinny

‘a piece of performance art which use technology to eloquent, vivid and immersive effect’ **** review -ArtsHub

‘a powerful emotional work: fragile, complex and potent’ review – Total Theatre Magazine

‘It’s not every day that you are offered a brand new way of looking at the world. But Eilidh MacAskill and Robert Walton’s piece gives you just that’ review – The Stage

‘A striking encounter, a puncture in space, phantasmic’ review -RealTime

Features

The new players: How technology is taking theatre out of the theatre by Mark Fisher in Edinburgh Festivals powered by The Scotsman

Alma Mater: Click here for tonight’s show by Stephanie Merritt, The Guardian

Digital media open up fresh paths to creativity on Fringe by Ben Hoyle, The Times

Play within an iPad: Edinburgh’s smallest theatre by Emily Jupp, The Independent

Tablet technology: A touch of creative genius by Alice Jones, The Independent

An audience of one gets intimate at Edinburgh Fringe by Hannah Livingston, BBC Scotland

Performances take digital to new frontier by Ben Hoyle, The Australian

Television features

BBC News Feature

Channel 4 News feature

BBC Newsnight Review feature

For more information about Alma Mater, including production credits, press reviews and more videos please visit Fish & Game’s website.

Role

Concept, Director

Date

2011-2013

Directing, Mobile, Film, Installation, Immersion

Created for

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