The Lost Lending Library

A couple of weeks ago, the immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, gave me the unique opportunity to experience the world as a child again.

This was when they opened up their immersive ‘school’ experience The Lost Lending Library to about 30 adults so they could better understand some of the great work the company does to ‘make learning more fun’.

I could write a whole article to describe the experience, but the video below does it better than I ever could.

The TOP 3 lessons I learned from going through the experience:

• if you create the right context, it’s easy to re-experience that feeling of child-like wonder. Even as a 50+ adult;
• good immersive design can be truly inspiring and even transformational. I met a head teacher who had invited Punchdrunk to her school already 6 or 7 times. This wasn’t just to give the kids a great experience. To her, it was also to show the teachers what could be possible if they were prepared to step out of the box.
• children are probably the most rewarding audience you can imagine. Sure, they are merciless about inconsistencies. But once they buy into a story, they are unafraid to take it further than you can imagine yourself. Immersive experiences and children are made for each other. After all, an old disconnected phone can still be magic. No?