It’s been a long time since I last went to see a live stage play, largely due to Covid and the numerous lockdowns that have turned me into a permanent homebody. There’s not much that will unshackle me from my desk these days, but thanks to the talented folks at Stellazzio Virtual Theatre, I didn’t have to leave the comforts of my room to enjoy a new show.
The troupe takes virtual theatre to the next level by crafting full-blown productions within Final Fantasy 14 to an impressively high standard. I missed seeing SVT’s last stage play in person, but I watched it on their Twitch, and then after meeting with the crew, I was blown away when they showed me all of the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Following that, I was invited to watch their latest production, The Henderson Hall Horror by David Schmidt. It’s a one-act play about a vengeful ghost haunting the Henderson family home and follows the paranormal investigators hired to put the spirit to rest. From the moment I arrived, the ushers were attentive and friendly, and everything was so well organised that you couldn’t help but admire the attention to detail and enthusiasm from the team.
I sat shoulder to shoulder with other players as we all excitedly waited for the show to start. The beauty of SVT is that the actors deliver their lines in-game via the text box, but there are also voice actors performing live on Discord. Personally, I found having Discord open and watching the production with the HUD completely hidden and in first-person view was the most immersive experience.
The lights came down, just as they would in any real-life theatre, and the first actor came out and took center stage and I was enthralled from that moment. I can’t express enough how well timed and engineered everything was, from the movements to the emotes, and even the mouth movement, the timing was flawless. As players typed their lines into chat, their character’s mouths moved, so even if you weren’t reading the chatbox, these movements combined with the Discord voiceover made a world of difference.
It was incredible to see how everything had been overhauled since I last visited SVT and explored the set for The Worker. The stage was a lot smaller in size for The Henderson Hall Horror, at least at first. As the play unfolded, a wall on either side of the stage opened up to reveal additional areas. It was a delightful surprise that I didn’t see coming, as at first, I just assumed it was a more intimate performance.
The music, lighting, and set changes were perfectly executed and it was incredible to see how well the setup worked in terms of the actors moving between rooms and disappearing off stage. More than once I marvelled at the creative use of different FF14 elements, such as using Stealth to make the ghost actor semi-transparent, or the job abilities used to make Zachariah the shadow man look demonic.
Once the show finished, the audience was invited to check out SVT’s café and museum — each of which is housed in its own Free Company building in the plots beside the theatre. The first is a great little spot to RP and support the troupe, while the second has displays of sets and props from their previous productions, as well as a rather touching memorial to a SVT team member named Ghenn who sadly passed away in 2020.
Stellazzio Virtual Theatre is based on Crystal Data Center, Diabolos World. They’re on hiatus now, taking a well-deserved break now that the curtain has closed on The Henderson Hall Horror, but they will be back again for another stage production in the future. You can stay up to date with what the troupe is doing via their website, Twitter, and Discord. You can also catch some of their old shows on their Twitch.
