Romeo and Juliet remixed: how technology can change storytelling

With the touch of a button, a Sydney Opera House audience rewrites Shakespeare as it is performed in front of them

On Sunday, as part of the Sydney Opera House's UnWrapped series, a group of dancers remixed" Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet by way of an Australian storytelling technology, Omelia. A product built to shuffle characters and events and generate narrative possibilities in real time, dancers using it brought a new version of the classic tragedy to life. The one-off production, R+J RMX, was filmed for the Opera House's streaming platform.

The remix" was interactive: audience members were sent to a website where they could restructure the play with the touch of a button, while on stage narrators and dancers ran through numerous renditions of the story.