Virtual reality provides new platform for radio play

Interactive virtual reality and computer gaming techniques have given a new lease of life to a radio play about a character searching for their soul.

Audiences are being given the chance to experience the play Mapping the Soul in a unique and immersive way by wearing virtual reality (VR) headsets.

They move through a series of computer-generated locations, following the main character Adam (who’s married to Eve) and interacting with him as he journeys in a coma through his subconscious in search of his soul.

Adam is a geneticist who has been unable to find the DNA for the soul and his story runs parallel to the narrative of an anatomist who is dissecting the brain of a 17th century philosopher in a bid to find the human soul.

In a gamified experience created by researchers at Aberystwyth University, audience members are asked to locate particular items to unlock further sections of the narrative and can choose to download a range of different levels.

An operatic score was specially composed to accompany the production, with the libretto sung by Cuban musician Jorge Moreno, while professional actors were employed for the voiceovers. Leading Welsh dance and performance artist Eddie Ladd did the motion capture for the soul’s movement.

Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, Mapping the Soul was written by playwright and scriptwriter Dr Lucy Gough, a Creative Research Fellow at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Television, Film and Theatre Studies.

Dr Gough has been working with Dr Piotr Woycicki, a lecturer in Theatre and New Media at Aberystwyth, to reimagine her radio play and transform it into a virtual experience.

The Coronation Challenge

Their research featured in The Coronation Challenge, organised by the Royal Anniversary Trust and bringing together researchers from universities and colleges who were winners of the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prizes in 2023, the highest national honour in education.

The year-long research initiative explored how the combination of creativity and emerging technologies, known as CreaTech, can drive innovation, create jobs and position the UK as a global leader in the creative industries.

Its findings were published in February 2025 in a major new report, The Coronation Challenge: CreaTech Report, by the UK government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Royal Anniversary Trust.

Dr Woycicki, who programmed the production, designed the sets and composed the operatic score for Mapping the Soul VR, said:

“This research-as-practice project explores the dramaturgical and interactive potential of virtual reality, integrating insights from theatre, game theory and neuroscience to reimagine the play's philosophical exploration of the human soul. By doing so, the project investigates the unique capabilities of VR and how this medium can be used for dramatic and narrative purpose. We were delighted to have been able to contribute to the CreaTech report, which shows how creativity can interact with emerging technologies to grow the creative industries and make an even stronger impact on both the economy and society.”

Dr Gough said: “By turning Mapping My Soul into a virtual reality experience, we’re able to investigate the unique capabilities of VR, such as virtual embodiment and sensory illusions, to enhance storytelling and audience engagement. As well as providing another platform to explore the creative imagination, we’re also showing there are new ways of bringing the radio play into the public arena and that another medium is evolving which can drive fresh narratives and dramatic possibilities.

Future developments 

The project’s findings could have significant implications for the use of VR in other narrative-driven formats, expanding the potential of immersive media in the creative industries. 

Dr Woycicki said: “This is not another zombie or tennis game – there are plenty of those on the mainstream market; rather, it is an attempt to offer an alternative and bring a serious, contemporary, interactive play to VR. It’s not revolutionary but it does mark a cultural shift where we take hold of VR and other new technologies and us them in intelligent, constructive ways to explore philosophical questions, neuroscientific arguments and spatial awareness. We also hope to inspire theatre producers to engage more with creative tech and VR game creators to collaborate with playwrights to create more theatrical products. There are lots of possibilities and we don’t yet know where this project will take us.”

A prototype of the VR version of Mapping the Soul is available free online but viewers will need their own VR headsets to follow the action. Plans are also underway to distribute the final version worldwide the Steam platform in 2025 and to stage public screenings in theatres or galleries.

The project also received funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW – now known as Medr).

Further information:

Mapping The Soul VR: https://mappingthesoul.myportfolio.com

CreaTeach Report:
https://royalanniversarytrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CreaTech-Report.pdf

Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/tfts