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Facility 111: A Government Experiment

 
Mark Harding Review by Mark Harding 2 Published: 12 Aug 2025 Assembly Rooms Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-17 Aug 2025

This show is hard to rate because it is an experiment rather than an entertainment. It depends on whether that idea floats your boat.

It has sincerity, and it’s different

The audience sits in darkness. Most shows in that genre aim for scares and high drama. This experience is quiet and contemplative, and demands concentration and patience. A voice guides the audience in imagining various images – that’s the bulk of the show.

Even for someone attracted by this idea, the most positive response is likely to be “That was interesting.” There is no scientific or psychological wizardry. As a show, it doesn’t work, but it has sincerity, and it’s different. It would be interesting to see what the author does next.

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Facility 111 is a surreal new audio play, written/performed live by Inge-Vera Lipsius. Taking place in darkness, it asks audiences to visualise poetic images in two interconnected cities: one made of glass, another of sand. Are we ultimately less different from one another than we think? Developed with Soho Theatre Labs. Lipsius is an American/Dutch director, writer, performer. Staging sold-out productions in London and Amsterdam, her play Quad Loop, the first on the Kamila Valieva scandal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, was selected for the Bomb Factory Theatre New Writing Showcase at the Bush Theatre.