Performance | The Books of Jacob: A Unique Digital Theater Experience Happening in 7 Locations Around the World

In this quantum, Kabbalistic, VR spectacle -- written by Olga Tokarczuk and directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski -- the story of Jacob Frank comes to life simultaneously in seven locations around the world in a synchronized performance happening in New York, Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Greece. Actors performing on physical stages in each country and on a digital stage in virtual reality, capture a world on the brink of change as they animate the story of a young Jew in the 18th-century who experiences ecstatic visions travels across the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, meeting heretical condemnation one moment and messianic recognition the next. 

The Books of Jacob is a live performance that audiences can experience in-person in each country or online in VRChat. Audiences in New York will have the opportunity to put on a VR headset and experience the production digitally, as well as from their seat where the virtual environment will be projected and layered into the scenography. The digital performance network activated as part of this project transforms how theater is experienced and expands the theater’s global reach. Real-time translation services and subtitles in the virtual environment facilitates this multilingual production.

Garbaczewski’s project draws from Nobel prize-winning Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s epic historical novel The Books of Jacob. Garbaczewski was first drawn to the book while incorporating metaphysical texts into his theatre practice, especially those of Jewish messianic thinker Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank – the 18th Century man who claimed to be Sabbatai Zevi reincarnated. Tokarczuk’s novel takes on the perspectives of Jacob’s followers and others who witnessed his establishment of a transformative religious movement against the kaleidoscopic backdrop of Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, and Greece. Despite its power in 18th Century Europe, Jacob’s movement has largely been forgotten by European history. Struck by Jacob’s ideas and their relevance to today, Garbaczewski is motivated to explore the work as a multiplayer virtual reality experience.