'Theatre isn't just one classical thing': UTM alum draws audience in with VR experience
I directed EOL, but I also created the story,” she says. “All the stuff that I learned in UTM drama studies has influenced how I tell stories. How do I write text, build plot points, create characters – I learned all of that at U of T.
Audience members don’t just watch the action in “[EOL]. End of Life,” they inhabit it.
Wearing VR headsets, they move through abandoned virtual landscapes, deciding for a fictitious corporation which digital traces of past lives to preserve or delete.
Created by University of Toronto Mississauga theatre and drama studies alum Victoria Halper, the immersive production reimagines theatre as a space where audiences become active agents inside the story.
“Theatre isn't just one classical thing, there's so many different ways to go about it,” says Halper, who also directs the show put on by her Vienna-based experimental theatre company DARUM.
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In VR, she adds, creative limits disappear: “It’s anything you want.”
Beyond just learning the VR medium, Halper says creating the show allowed her to draw on many aspects of her theatre training.
EOL, which has been touring festivals, has been nominated for Berlin's prestigious Theatertreffen and is the winner of the 2025 Nestroy Special Prize. But Halper says one of the biggest rewards is seeing audiences’ reactions.
