Ian McKellen explores life and death in groundbreaking mixed-reality play An Ark
Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel and Arinzé Kene star in An Ark, an immersive theatre experience exploring love, grief, memory and what it means to be human.
What would it feel like to sit face to face with Ian McKellen as he speaks about the experiences that shape a human life?
That is the idea behind An Ark, an experimental theatre production that uses mixed-reality technology to bring recorded performances into the audience's immediate surroundings. Featuring McKellen alongside Golda Rosheuvel, Arinzé Kene and Rosie Sheehy, the production comes to Manchester's Aviva Studios from 27 March to 10 April 2027.
Rather than following a conventional plot with a single protagonist and a sequence of dramatic events, An Ark explores the human experience through reflections on life, love, grief, work and death. Its performers address themes that connect people across generations, inviting audiences to consider their own memories, relationships and understanding of what it means to be alive.
The production's unusual format is designed to make those reflections feel personal. Audiences wear smart glasses that allow recorded performances to appear within their view of the real environment, creating the impression that an actor is close by rather than distant on a stage. The result is a theatrical experience built around proximity and direct engagement rather than traditional scenery and blocking.
How does the mixed-reality theatre experience work?
In a conventional play, actors and audiences share the same physical space and the performance happens live in front of them. In An Ark, the actors' performances have been recorded in advance and are presented through mixed-reality technology, allowing viewers to see digital representations of the performers within their surroundings.
This is different from an AI-generated production. The experience uses recorded performances by real actors, with the technology changing how those performances are presented to the audience. McKellen and his fellow cast members are therefore central to the work even though audiences will not see them physically performing in the venue during each session.
The format also changes the relationship between performer and viewer. Instead of watching a scene unfold across a stage, audience members may experience an actor as though they are sitting nearby and speaking directly to them. For a production dealing with intimate subjects such as loss, memory and connection, that sense of closeness is part of the artistic idea.
Who created An Ark?
The play is written by Simon Stephens and directed by Sarah Frankcom, with Todd Eckert conceiving and producing the project. The cast also includes Rosheuvel, known for Bridgerton, and Kene and Sheehy, bringing together performers from film, television and theatre.
The Manchester engagement follows a previous run at The Shed in New York. Its arrival at Aviva Studios forms part of Factory International's programme of work that experiments with new forms of performance and the ways technology can alter the audience's experience.
Rather than using technology simply as a visual effect, An Ark places it at the centre of how the story is encountered. Its subject is the familiar experience of being human, but the production asks whether seeing a performer at close quarters through mixed reality can make those themes feel different from watching a traditional play.
The production runs at Aviva Studios from 27 March to 10 April 2027. Performance information and booking details are available here: Find tickets for An Ark at Factory International.
For audiences curious about the future of theatre, An Ark offers a different kind of encounter with McKellen and the rest of the cast.
