Thirst Trap and Swimming Home are two new audio productions which audiences listen to while submerged – but don’t expect a relaxing soak
Two new immersive audio shows involve running a warm bath but immersion isn’t instant in either. You are told to stand beside your tub for a long, shivering preamble, waiting for the instruction to – finally – step in.
For Swimming Home, listeners must download a sound-based interactive theatre app called Mercurious NET (National Ear Theatre), manoeuvre carefully once in the tub to make sure the phone doesn’t land in the water, and intermittently submerge your head while wearing headphones. For Thirst Trap, there are even more particularities: you receive a shoebox-sized delivery which contains all the accoutrements for the show, including a plastic-coated measuring tape so you can fill the bath to 25cm height and a thermometer to hit the right temperature. These preparations feel like an exacting, Heston Blumenthal style procedure to boil an egg. Filling up the bathtub, lighting a candle and lowering yourself in hardly needs the nine-step instruction leaflet provided.
