Gemma was a founder of the hugely influential and multi-award-winning Shunt collective. She shared the artistic directorship of the company with the other founders and performed in all shows.
shunt (2000-14)
‘An astounding piece of theatre - an immersive experience. Radical. Original. Incredible.’
TIME OUT (2000)
‘To say that it was exciting just wouldn't do justice to the experience. Your preconceptions were forcibly rearranged.’
TOM MORRIS
‘Shunt pioneered what came to be known as immersive theatre.’
WIRED
‘The most innovative theatre company in Britain.’
THE GUARDIAN
‘Fantastic alarming inventiveness.’
THE INDEPENDENT
‘The whole thing felt like being inside the head of a drunken genius.’
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘The daddies of immersive theatre.’
TIME OUT
‘The most astonishing and disorienting coup de théatre I've ever seen. It really felt, watching Dance Bear Dance, like something new was happening. It was in the best way totally mind-blowing. I've never seen anything like it. It was strange, wild, beautiful and funny and it conjured astonishing things out of the darkness.’
NICHOLAS HYTNER
(Hytner went on to programme Shunt in his inaugural season at the National Theatre - their first ever off-site immersive show)
‘Stunning immersive theatre’
DERREN BROWN
‘The very best place. The very best people. Shunt were, without doubt, one of the best things to happen to us as a company. They were fundamental in keeping us playing, experimenting and believing it was possible - and for that we are forever in their debt.’
CLARE BERESFORD - LITTLE BULB (OLIVIER AWARD WINNERS) - One of 1000 artists curated at the Shunt Lounge
‘The best bar in London.’
THE EVENING STANDARD
THEATRE IN REAL SPACES
Gemma began working with fictions integrated into real environments while studying at Cambridge (pre-Shunt). On graduating, she was in the performing company for Incarnate - a wild reimagining of the Passion of Christ on the streets of Edinburgh.
‘Theatre bursting out of its own emergency exit.’
THE GUARDIAN on INCARNATE (Award Nomination)
She played Miranda in The Tempest (2000), where the audience chose the location of the show (usually it was performed in their own home).
’One of the all-time great Edinburgh Fringe productions.’
THE GUARDIAN on THE TEMPEST
In 2001, Gemma met Silvia Mercuriali, who was also working with integrated fictions and they were immediately excited to collaborate. Their first show, Pinocchio, invited an audience of three into the back seat of a car and drove them through the city - whichever city they were in. The city became the scenography and the audience lived within a surreal film…
‘The real star of Pinocchio is Dublin itself, made strangely new and wondrous as its skewed landscapes filter through the smudged windows.’
DUBLIN TIMES (Award Nomination)
Silvia and Gemma have toured their work across four continents.
OTHER collaborations
Recently, Gemma met Jack Aldisert (Deadweight). She joined the performance company for The Manikins (2024) and went on to play Hedda in their production of Hedda Gabler in a flat in Bermondsey (2025).
A huge personal obsession is theatrical architectures the Civil War in England. From years of research, she created, wrote and directed the first immersive show for the RSC (2017).
‘Bold, brilliant work - and almost orgiastic visual experience’.
THE STAGE on KINGDOM COME (RSC)
With designer Gary Campbell, she created and performed in a show for the BAC one-on-one festival, 2011 :
’The luminous Gemma Brockis is Max, and she’s so adorable you just want to eat her up. As delightful as any pudding. Go and be transported.’
FOURTH WALL
She has directed immersive performances for The Curtain Hotel (in hotel rooms), Buenos Aires Fashion Week 2007 (an immersive runway show) and the V&A.
Other immersive artists Gemma has performed with include: Darkfield, Tai Shani (Turner Winner), Wiretapper, Coney, Gideon Reeling, Punchdrunk (Silverpoint & The Third Day), Cooking Sections (Turner Finalists) & Marisa Carnesky (Ghost Train).
ONLINE
In her pursuit to discover how new spaces become new stages, she imagined the isolation of lockdown as a site for performance. First, she opened her very own university - The University of O. Then, she curated and designed Oddvent - a 24-day experience based on an advent calendar, involving twenty four world-class artists.
‘Oddvent was necessary for the communal soul of participants and makers alike. It sustained us and nourished us during an isolating time, and brought us close together.’
JULIA MASLI
DIRECTING ARCHIVE : CLICK here
Testimonials
‘I have worked with Gemma on numerous immersive projects. She is an incredible theatre maker, writer & collaborator. She has a unique ability to determine what is truly important and meaningful amongst the general chaotic overload of the creative process.’
DAVID ROSENBERG - Co-founder of Shunt / Now Artistic Director of Darkfield
‘Gemma Brockis is one my favorite bright minds in immersive performance.’
BRIAN SOLOMON - Creative Tech Director at Framestore, NYC & Creator of XR team for Meow Wolf
SELECTED LINKS & publications
USEFUL EXTRACT FROM UNIVERSITY OF O : GLOSSARY OF THEATRICAL TERMS
immersive theatre :
/ɪˈmɜː.sɪv θέατρο/
Nowadays it is quite fashionable for audiences to wander about right into the middle of the play. Sometimes they get ‘in the way’. When this happens, the actors can either look the audience in the eye like a man, or they can hide behind a sort of flexible fourth wall and pretend that they are in a Henrik Ibsen play, even though the audience is nearly touching their nose.
Image: Britt Hatzius (Pinocchio) | Susanne Dietz (Shunt Shows) | NK Guy (Shunt Lounge) | Lottie Davies (Oddvent)