Technical Production for a Playable World

Written by Matt Veitch

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For its 25th year, Punchdrunk set out to create an experience unlike any other: Lander 23. Rather than drawing audiences into a story as silent witnesses, the production casts them as participants inside a live mission, where decisions and outcomes unfold in real time.

Delivering this new kind of performance required not only a radical creative concept but also a technical production structure capable of supporting it. Ammonite Production was engaged as technical producer, technical director, and delivery partner, ensuring that a vision rooted in

the mechanics of video games could exist in the physical space of theatre.

Artistic Approach

The creative ambition of Lander 23 was to place the audience in the position of active players. Lives, maps, and missions are built into the structure of the show, and every individual is given the chance to influence their own path.

Ammonite’s role was to build a production framework that could hold this complexity without constraining the artistry. This meant embedding production specialists across multiple departments, so that lighting, sound, set, costume, stage management, and technology could all move in step with one another. Our internal studio model gave Punchdrunk a dedicated partner to translate big ideas into achievable systems.

Production & Technical Challenges

The show’s hybrid nature—sitting between theatre and interactive gameplay—presented challenges that few productions had faced before. Traditional stagecraft had to align with systems thinking more commonly found in software and live gaming environments.

To meet this, Ammonite designed an approach that balanced detailed planning with adaptability. Each department was given bespoke production support while remaining connected through a centralised management process. This allowed creative and technical teams from very different disciplines to collaborate without losing sight of the overall mission.

Innovation

Ammonite’s contribution centred on finding new ways to blend technology and live performance:

• Player-first Production — designing the entire technical framework around audience participation rather than passive viewing.
  

• Studio-based Delivery Model — treating the production as a continuous collaboration across disciplines, mirroring the structure of a creative studio.
  

• Systems That Disappear — ensuring technical elements underpin gameplay and world-building while remaining invisible to participants.
  

• Resourceful Sustainability — repurposing and adapting infrastructure from previous Punchdrunk shows to reduce environmental impact.

Outcome

The collaborative process established by Ammonite enabled Lander 23 to:

• Function as a live, playable experience where audiences become active participants.
  

• Integrate a broad range of creative and technical departments under one unified production framework.
  

• Deliver complex, game-inspired mechanics in a way that feels natural and immersive.
  

• Push the boundaries of what live performance can offer while remaining sustainable and efficient in delivery.

Legacy

Lander 23 demonstrates a new direction for immersive performance — one where audience members are not guided through a story but empowered to shape it themselves.

For Ammonite Production, the project represents a milestone in large-scale technical management. By applying a studio-based approach to an artform that is constantly evolving, we helped make possible a work that could influence the future of live, interactive entertainment.