BRIDGE COMMAND
Inside Bridge Command, a life-sized starship ready to propel you into space
Owen Kingston is Parabolic Theatre’s artistic director; today, according to the insignia on his jumpsuit, he’s also the captain of the USC Havock. Kingston lays one palm on a scanner and its entrance opens, with that trademark science-fiction swoosh, to reveal the metallic angles of a starship’s access corridor.
Off it, beyond another door – swoosh – is a shuttle pod, used for away-mission excursions or emergency evacuations. At the far end is a med bay and a cargo dock, complete with a brig, its entrance outlined with red light. On our way to the bridge, our tour guide points out bunks set into the corridor’s walls. These are so that sessions can eventually run overnight, or for entire weekends, he explains. Off this corridor is something rarely seen in sci-fi shows: a bathroom, its video porthole displaying the starfield outside. “We thought about putting showers into the ships too, but at some point you have to start axing things,” Kingston laughs. “It’s incredible how quickly you can spend three million quid.”
The Havock is one of two ships currently being built within the railway arches of London’s Vauxhall station, where Parabolic Theatre will be opening Bridge Command to the public in late March. “Nobody’s really done this before,” Kingston says – and that includes Parabolic itself. It has been producing immersive shows since 2016, but this ship sits somewhere between a theatre set, escape room and videogame peripheral.
