The most premium
VR theatre experience
Premium Content
We have recorded pilots in the most prestigious European theatres, including Royal and National theatres. Our opening act was a play by the Finnish National Theatre.
Premium Hardware
We have an app for Meta Quest 2 and 3 goggles and have started development for Apple's Vision Pro. We prefer the most popular and easy-to-use headsets with the best image quality and immersive experience.
Premium Capturing
We record in 3D with movie-grade cameras from top manufacturers, including ARRI and RED. The three-dimensional illusion is what makes our experience so immersive.
Premium Accessibility
We are the only international VR theatre with subtitles for enjoying plays in languages you don’t speak and for hearing aids. We combine 3D video with a 3D model of a theatre where you can choose seats, adjust lights, and, in the future, go to the theatre with friends as avatars.
Our mission
New audiences for theatres
We want to make theatre more popular. It's a three-thousand-year-old art form that is finally about to be available in digital format.
Our idea is not to replace theatre but to create a "Second Theatre" that is virtual. It will bring theatre to those who missed ticket sales and those who can't go due to a hectic life, health, age, or distance.
For example, Berlin is famous for its theatres, but for many theatre fans, it's too far and in a language they need help understanding. With Second Theatre, you can become a fan in a second.
The beginnings
Second Theatre's founder, Erkki Izarra, got the idea in 2015 when he worked as a Global Director at Microsoft. He had the chance to try an early VR experience. On that virtual mountaintop, his first thought was, "Hey, this could be the way to re-live theatre."
Later, he gathered a team of VR pros from Donkey Hotel. They made a test recording in KOM Theatre, and it was mindblowing. Erkki still gets goosebumps every time he tells how they fired up the first demo with Varjo goggles in Varjo's first office.
Why did Erkki get the idea? Because his mother, Anneli, and sister, Elina, are both Theatre Directors. Today, Elina still writes and directs plays – and curates content for Second Theatre. Unfortunately, Elina and Erkki never saw the plays their mother directed because they were too young.
This brings us to the second part of our mission. Second Theatre creates new audiences for theatres and records it for future generations.
