Hacked Off: Black Swan

Hacked Off’s latest immersive cinema experience brought the drama, glamour and beauty of Black Swan into three dimension.

Guests at the event, adhering to the black tie dress code, were handed flutes of champagne on arrival and whisked into an airy room in the Keble O’Reilly theatre for pre-performance drinks.

A four piece string quartet played classical ballet music whilst waiters bearing canapés milled about between the gorgeous black and white table decorations.

Wending through the crowd in a seamless blend of cinema and reality was a spitting image of the film’s dance director Leroy, played by Vincent Cassel, accompanied by a girl in a white beaded dress in the role of Nina (Natalie Portman.)

As he stepped up to a raised platform and began a speech about his company’s new production, Swan Lake, the guests began to murmur as the realisation struck.

We were actually in the movie, playing guests at the Ballet Company ball. The boundaries between screen and life had dissolved.

Ushered through the labyrinthine backstairs of the Keble O’Reilly, the atmosphere changed abruptly.

Red lighting, technical assistants carrying clipboards, calls for ‘cigarettes for Nina in her dressing room’ and a check of the spotlight recreated the chaos of backstage.

Passing by open doors, guests saw girls in leotards limbering up, a room heavy with the smell of hairspray and strewn with ribbon and hair nets was filled with last minute stage makeup.

Finally reaching the auditorium, the audience walked through a real live ballet class in action.

A piano played in the corner, ballerinas practised plies by the barre and Leroy strolled though the class correcting technique and observing floorwork, all whilst the guests took their seats. Finally, the lights dimmed and the film began.

On leaving the auditorium guests trailed past a girl, resplendent in full White Swan ballet costume, lying peacefully surrounded by feathers in a perfect echo of the closing image of the film.

Walking back up the stairs, out of the cinematic fantasyland and into real life, a swathe of red material swept gracefully down the stairwell.

We had all, in the words of Leroy spoken at the beginning of the evening, ‘had the chance and the privilege to be enchanted and transported’ by Hacked Off’s immersive evening.