{"id":90442,"date":"2016-08-22T14:54:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T13:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=90442"},"modified":"2016-08-24T08:23:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T07:23:59","slug":"the-dark-room-inside-the-bowie-inspired-sci-fi-spectacular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/news\/the-dark-room-inside-the-bowie-inspired-sci-fi-spectacular\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Room: inside the Bowie-inspired sci-fi spectacular"},"content":{"rendered":"

We got the chance to talk to one of the best science fiction stylised live acts that is hitting Edinburgh Fringe. We get behind the scenes of how he created the character and what it took to start it going.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First question is an easy one, what made you create such an evil maniac of a character to host your The Dark Room<\/em> shows?
\n<\/strong>Well, I wanted it to be just like the old text-based adventures from the 80s \u2013 they didn\u2019t want you to win, and they mocked you when you failed, like an awful schoolteacher or a reallllly good dominatrix.<\/p>\n

Having played the game, we definitely see those influences. The styling of the character is on point, with the hair and the random choice of gear. Why did you make those style choices and where was its inspiration?
\n<\/strong>Heh! It really is \u201con point\u201d, I\u2019ve got metal spikes on my shoulders. Originally the character was just a floating head. Then we decided he could have a graphical upgrade \u2013 so went with 80s futurism. Tron<\/strong><\/em>\u2019s LED lights and The Legion of Doom\u2019s shoulder pads. I look like how the 80s thought 2016 would look, so exactly like the 80s!<\/p>\n

Good to hear, finding a theme that works must have been hard<\/strong>. How did the trial runs for the character go?\u00a0We all had to start somewhere, what worked and what did not?
\n<\/strong>Weirdly, the character\u2019s always worked! We never had a trial run. Every show\u2019s a trial for the audience.<\/p>\n

Having played the game, we found it weird how your choice of the contestant name ‘Darren’ is attached to everyone who plays. Why did the player always get called Darren? Was it always the case?
\n<\/strong>It wasn\u2019t always, but then I thought it\u2019d be nice to have a secret. A secret with a stupid name. And that name is Darren. Plus, it means there\u2019s a story in the show – and the audience has to find it. Who is Darren? Why are they in a dark room? Dear God, why are you hitting me? And what\u2019s in the Box of Possibly Meat? It\u2019s a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

You are about to descend into the Edinburgh Fringe,\u00a0what is the main things people should look out for?
\n<\/strong>How will you look for anything? You\u2019re in a dark room!<\/p>\n

The Dark Room<\/em> is playing the Underbelly, Cowgate Venue in Edinburgh until 27 August – you can buy tickets here<\/a>.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spoke to John Robertson about his Edinburgh Fringe act, The Dark Room<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":90443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1718,7,3,2618],"tags":[5321,5322],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/dark_room_750_500_60_c1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}