Dear Esther Live tour starting in November

The Chinese Room has announced that, following on from its well-received shows at the London Games Festival and the Barbican, it’ll be touring Dear Esther Live throughout the UK later this year and into 2018. It’s be a performance piece featuring a live play-through and orchestral backing. Sounds very artsy.

Co-founder of The Chinese Room, Jessica Curry, also composed the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed Dear Esther. Speaking of the positive reception, Curry said, ‘Dear Esther really has stood the test of time. Going back to it, we still felt so passionate about it. We realized that we’re missing a trick here, in not playing it live, as it has so many advantages that way’.

Dear Esther Live isn’t meant to be a regular concert of games music, nor is it meant to be a let’s play style walkthrough. Dear Esther Live has been envisioned as a performance of art, music and poetry supported by the visuals of the game’s setting. Or something along those lines.

The show features a live playthrough of the game, performed by writer Thomas McMullan in front of the audience, And the music that plays is indicative of what is going on in the game at that very moment. Curry confirms that, as with playing the game, for the live show every performance will be different, saying that ‘one of the most exciting things about this tour is that no audience is going to get the same experience. The playthrough can change every night’.

The Dear Esther Live tour will begin in November 2017, with a press night in Glasgow on November before making its way around the country. A full list of dates and venues are at the link, as well as tickets if you’re interested.

Dear Esther, began as mod project by The Chinese Room, before becoming a standalone release in 2012. It’s an interactive experience, a short story told in a non-linear timeline, with no enemies and no high scores. It was well received by many critics, including us.