Sheffield’s best-kept secret isn’t an artisan bakery or a trendy cafe — it’s an experimental theatre group
Experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment has presented the British premiere of Cold Sweat at Sheffield Theatres, a production that unsettles audiences by having performers lip-sync to AI-generated voices whilst wearing bad wigs. The uncanny effect of computer-generated dialogue emerging from real bodies creates deliberate discomfort, challenging conventions of what constitutes live theatre.
The production features multiple performers exaggeratedly mouthing identical dialogue to AI-generated voices, with the repetition intensifying the unsettling effect. Forced Entertainment is a Sheffield-based company celebrated for its avant-garde approach that employs repetition, improvisation and extended running times to challenge theatrical conventions, with further productions forthcoming locally.
- Cold Sweat premiere features performers lip-syncing to AI-generated voices
- Deliberately unsettling production uses repetition to amplify audience discomfort
- Sheffield-based company challenges theatrical conventions through avant-garde performance
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Forced Entertainment is an experimental theatre company based in Sheffield that has been challenging the way audiences experience live performance for decades. The company is known for using techniques like repetition, improvisation and unusually long running times to push against traditional theatrical conventions.
Cold Sweat is a new production that takes this experimental approach further by incorporating artificial intelligence into the performance itself. Performers on stage lip-sync to AI-generated voices whilst wearing bad wigs, creating a deliberately unsettling effect as audiences watch computer-generated words come from real human bodies.
The production presents a new kind of theatrical experience by combining human performers with computer-generated elements. This reflects Forced Entertainment's broader approach of using unconventional techniques to challenge what audiences expect from live theatre.