Lotte Cultureworks is relaunching its immersive, interactive performance brand, INSIDE THE PLAY, starting with a new production created in collaboration with director Yeon Sang-ho's film 'Gunche'.
The brand is designed to pull audiences into a story world beyond the screen. Viewers take part directly, interacting with actors in real time and helping complete the narrative, rather than watching from the outside.
The project is built around 'Gunche,' which was officially invited to the Midnight Screenings section of the 79th Cannes International Film Festival. The film centers on survivors trapped inside a sealed building during an unidentified outbreak, facing infected people who evolve in unpredictable ways.
Thierry Fremaux, the festival's executive director, previously introduced Yeon's 'Gunche' as “a horror zombie genre film set inside a sealed building,” noting that audiences would imagine “various narrative devices and storytelling possibilities” within that setup.
Lotte Cultureworks said it aims to expand the film's world into an offline space, blurring the line between cinema and live performance. By translating the story's claustrophobic fear and psychological pressure into an immersive format, the audience becomes a participant inside the incident.
Unlike productions that follow a fixed route, this show uses a multi-ending system in which each audience member's choices and movement can affect the outcome as situations change in real time.
'Inside the Play: Gunche' opens May 21 at Lotte Cinema Sindebang. Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. April 24 through Ticketlink and Naver Booking.
“We planned this performance to build a fully immersive show in which the audience leads the narrative,” said Yoon Se-in, head of Lotte Cultureworks' live business division. “'Inside the Play' with the film 'Gunche' will be a chance to deliver thrills audiences have not experienced before.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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