Double Act

Double Act is an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experience that invites audiences to step inside the birth of British cinema.

Overview

Double Act is an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experience that invites audiences to step inside the birth of British cinema.

Guided through a richly imagined world, visitors meet two pioneering figures of early filmmaking: George Albert Smith, mesmerist, inventor and filmmaker, and Laura Eugenia Bayley, pantomime performer, early film star and filmmaker. Working together in Brighton & Hove at the turn of the 20th century, Smith and Bayley helped shape cinema as a new artform — experimenting with editing, performance, special effects and early colour film at a time when moving images still felt like magic.

Blending historical research, storytelling and immersive technology, Double Act brings to life the places, performances and inventions that positioned Brighton & Hove at the forefront of early film innovation.

Double Act is presented as part of Days of Wonder, an arts and heritage programme exploring the history of filmmaking and media culture in Brighton & Hove.

Double Act has been created by artist Jess Starns and creative technologist Tom Ward.

Thank you to our Community Partners : Little Green Pig whose children and young people produced magic lantern stories as part of the project.

Double Act has been funded by Arts Council England.

The experience

Double Act is experienced using a Virtual Reality headset, which places you inside a narrated journey through Victorian Brighton & Hove.

As the experience unfolds, you will move through spaces inspired by magic lantern shows, theatres, pleasure gardens and early film studios. Smith and Bayley guide you through their lives and work, revealing how illusion, performance and curiosity led to some of cinema’s earliest breakthroughs — from trick films and close-ups to early experiments with colour.

The VR experience is fully immersive and lasts approximately 20 minutes. A trained member of staff will be on hand to help you put on the headset, explain how the experience works, and support you throughout your visit.

No previous experience of VR is required.