According to Fast Company, a new production called An Ark is billing itself as the world’s first play created in mixed reality. Opening on January 21 at The Shed arts center in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the 47-minute experience uses Magic Leap glasses to blend digital actors with the physical stage. The story is told from the afterlife by four unnamed characters portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel, Rosie Sheehy, and Arinzé Kene. The virtual performers appear in a semi-circle, looking and speaking directly to each audience member for the duration of the show, creating an illusion of intimate, one-on-one performance.
The illusion of intimacy
Here’s the thing about theater: it’s a shared, communal illusion. We all agree to pretend together. This MR play flips that entirely. It makes the illusion personal. When Ian McKellen smiles at *you*, and you instinctively smile back, that’s a powerful, weirdly human moment—even if it’s all pixels and lenses. The tech enables a conceit that’s otherwise impossible: making every single person in the audience feel like the sole focus of a star actor’s performance. That’s the promise. But it’s also the biggest risk.
When the magic breaks
The article’s author mentions their brain eventually “caught up to the trickery,” and that’s the core challenge. How long can the spell last? In a traditional play, the suspension of disbelief is fragile but unified. In this, it’s fragmented and dependent on hardware. If your glasses fog up, or the tracking glitches for a second, the entire premise collapses. You’re just a person in a dark room wearing a bulky headset. And let’s be honest, current-gen MR glasses aren’t exactly known for comfort during a 47-minute sit. It’s a high-wire act with zero room for technical error.
A gimmick or the future?
So is this a fascinating one-off experiment, or a glimpse at the next evolution of performance? I’m leaning towards the former, but it’s an important experiment. It probes a fundamental question: what is “live” theater? The actors aren’t there, breathing the same air. Their performance is a pre-rendered digital asset. But the *experience* is live, unique, and reactive to your presence. That’s new territory. The real test won’t be the premiere, but whether this technology can enable new kinds of stories that couldn’t be told any other way. If it’s just used to digitally resurrect famous actors for canned performances, then it’s a pricey parlor trick.
The hardware hurdle
This all hinges on the gear, and that’s the elephant in the room. Magic Leap has had a… turbulent journey. Using their tech for a prestigious arts project is a clever PR move for them, but it highlights a broader issue for this medium. For mixed reality to become a viable theatrical platform, the hardware needs to become invisible—cheap, comfortable, reliable, and mass-producible. We’re not there yet. Pushing the boundaries of content like this is crucial to drive that innovation forward, proving there’s a demand. It’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem. But for now, experiencing “An Ark” means going to a specific venue and strapping on their specialized equipment. That’s not the future of accessible art.
