Life is fleeting …

I thought the tube could mirror how we move through life. The tube is a place people pass through, often brushing against strangers without ever really seeing them. Everyone is physically but emotionally distant, they're either lost in their headphones, books, phones, their own world. This perfectly sets up the theme of Sonder - the realisation that everyone has a life as vivid and complex as your own

It has dramatic tension and staging opportunities!

Claustrophobia - being trapped in a moving carriage adds intensity.

In-the-round staging - with the audience seated as passengers, they become part of the world - it critiques the bystander effect especially if they're watching tragedy unfold and doing nothing.

Silent characters feel real - tube passengers are often quiet and expressionless, in Sonder the silence is loaded. The audience are invited to imagine what's going on behind their blank presence.

Motifs & Sound Design

Headphones/White noise motif - it is natural in a tube setting.

Layering - thoughts, the screech of the train, announcements

Tragedy in a familiar space

This story takes place somewhere so ordinary - it's disturbingly believable.