Llais, the festival dedicated to the instrument we all share, gives voice to a forgotten heroine of segregation-era America, the UK Premiere of the multi-award winning Augmented Reality show at BOCS, Wales Millennium Centre’s groundbreaking space for immersive experiences and extended reality (XR). Between 1 October and 3 November, Wales Millennium Centre’s BOCS venue will become a portal through which audiences can step into the segregated world of 1950s America with an augmented reality experience that has won multiple awards, including Best Immersive Work of the 77th Festival de Cannes.
Adapted from a biographical essay written by Tania de Montaigne, Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin transports audiences to the United States, to Montgomery Alamaba on March 2, 1955 when a 15-year-old Black teenager refuses to give up her seat to a White passenger. Despite threats, she remains seated. After being thrown in jail, she decides to sue the city and plead not guilty. No one ever dared to do such a thing at the time. And yet, no one remembers her name. When, 9 months later, Rosa Parks repeated the same act, everything changed. With the support of a young pastor who had recently arrived in Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks became a hero, the spark that launched the civil rights movement. History was in the making. While Claudette Colvin made it all possible, she was largely forgotten. She still lives in the United States today, and is 83 years old.
In a setting specially-designed for the experience, with benches arranged as on a bus, the emblematic scenes from the life of Claudette Colvin during her fight for civil rights are replayed. Wearing Hollolens2 AR headsets, including bone conduction speakers, audiences become witness to a historical event which paved the way for change to come.
“Colored, the Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin” directed by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud, based on the work by Tania de Montaigne, produced by Novaya in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, co-produced with Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan).
Winner of the Award for Best Immersive Work of the 77th Festival de Cannes.
David Massey, Wales Millennium Centre’s Senior Producer (Immersive Experiences), said:
“Since we launched BOCS – the first space of its kind in any UK arts centre – we have been exploring the possibilities of how immersive experiences can be incorporated into our wider work. The space has opened the door onto fantastic new worlds and new ways of experiencing voices, stories and ideas.
“Past Llais festivals have seen audiences taken on thrilling immersive journeys into the history of the punk and rave scenes. Now with Colored we take a seat on a bus in 1950s Alabama to bear witness to an overlooked moment in time that was to lead to an event that changed the world. We could not be more excited to stage this deeply affecting and award-winning production which epitomises the potential of immersive digital storytelling.”
Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin | Wales Millennium Centre (wmc.org.uk)
