Explore the surreal world of a fast-food mascot in new immersive experience, Sweet Dreams

The world premiere of a new immersive experience has landed in Manchester. Sweet Dreams is the creation of award-winning experiential art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) and Factory International, which commissions and produces original creative work and special events at Aviva Studios. The experience, taking audiences on a surreal and satirical journey through a sequence of meticulously designed rooms, explores ideas around appetite, human desire and the evolving landscape of food.

Sweet Dreams unites not only the vocal chops of globally loved comedians Reggie Watts, Munya Chawawa and Morgana Robinson, but also the illustrative skills of French creative Matthieu Bessudo, widely known as McBess. Following the adventures of Chicky Ricky and his exploits surrounding the Real Good Chicken Company, the show is the epitome of multi-sensory storytelling, combining elements of gaming, motion graphics and cinema. The result is an engrossing and at times unnerving experience. Taking advantage of Aviva Studios’ scale, the experience stretches across a collection of rooms – some humorous, others horrorsome, and each uniquely designed to immerse the audience in the bizarre and sometimes unpleasant world of modern food production.

Written by Simon Wroe, a former top chef and award-winning writer, the show – avoiding any spoilers – asks the audience what it means to desire, and how the food we consume shapes both ourselves and the culture around us. All, of course, in the context of wildly ridiculous scenes and situations. Robinson, Chawawa and Watts, the talent behind Sweet Dreams’ cartoon crew of fast-food mascots, take you behind the scenes of The Real Good Chicken Company’s HQ, from its prime to its decline and downfall, discovering the realities behind our mass-market food chain.

As a loyal factory worker, you’ll experience the classic day-to-day of The Real Good Chicken Company, from chicken bucket manufacturing to being a test subject on their latest product line. You know, the usual. Munya Chawawa, who voices Chicky Ricky, says in a release: “The concept and characters are so brilliantly poignant and satirically sharp, it’s been a total delight and will be for anyone who goes to see it. Let’s just say you’ll think twice before your next burger.” Speaking of the opportunity of working on the project, Munya also adds, “I’ve always felt my career wouldn’t be complete without voicing a psychologically twisted animated chicken, so this truly was a dream come true.”

Sweet Dreams isn’t Factory International and MLF’s first rodeo together, with their prior development, Dream, a digital theatre production that ran between 2021-2022, set in the forest of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Repurposing gaming technology, the show featured live actors in motion-capture suits, interacting with the audience and their fellow actors. It embraced a subversive spirit which the teams have carried over into Sweet Dreams whilst continuing MLF’s run of immersive products that tackle reinterpretation, perception and experience. A world-renowned, award-winning art collective, MLF has set a standard for synthesising contemporary culture and new tech, bringing new conversations to the forefront of art and interaction.

Likewise, Sweet Dreams’ venue, Aviva Studios, is equally groundbreaking, having opened in June 2023 as a new cultural landmark for the city of Manchester. With the latest production taking over the site from Yayoi Kusama’s popular exhibition of inflatables that it previously hosted in its maiden summer, the experience’s design and creation cements both Aviva Studios’ importance in the UK, as well as the city’s status as a global centre for culture and innovation. Sweet Dreams’ premiere marks a significant release for Factory International and MLF, as well as a successful partnership with BFI, funded by the National Lottery. Thoughtful and complex beyond its aesthetics, the experience is crafted to blur the lines between disciplines, shows and opinions, resulting in something as unsettling and avant-garde as it is restlessly progressive.

Sweet Dreams is on now and runs until 1 September at Manchester’s Aviva Studios.