The Question Of Home

DO YOU NEED actors to tell a story? Could you, the audience member, create drama for yourself? In the upcoming M1 Fringe Festival, several artworks invite the audience to participate in the story. One work titled Secretive Thing 215, for instance, puts you on a one-person journey on the streets, based on instructions sent to your mobile phone, to discover the story for yourself. Whatever the method, the festival is certainly attempting to push the boundaries of art-making with the programming of more immersive and participatory artworks.

Melissa Lim, the festival's executive producer, says: ''There's certainly a global trend of artists making more participatory and interactive artworks. Perhaps in the age of Netflix, that's what performing artists feel they have to do in order to get the audience to come for their shows... And it's not a gimmick or ruse. When you loo…