A play’s shoebox-sized stage

“Flight,” from Glasgow-based theater company Vox Motus, is not exactly theater in the traditional sense. In fact, there are no live performers.

The entire story is told via 230 miniature dioramas on a rotating carousel. Audience members sit in private booths along the perimeter of the carousel, listening to a soundtrack through headphones as the tiny scenes pass by and light up, one after the other.

“Flight” is an adaptation of Caroline Brothers’ novel “Hinterland.” It tells the story of two orphaned refugees from Afghanistan and their epic trek across several European countries. Vox Motus co-artistic director Jamie Harrisonhoped that using miniature figures would make audience members reconsider the status of child migrants.

“We're really interested in the relationship between the observer sitting in a booth and feeling almost godlike,” says Harrison, “and what that does in terms of our relationship to the characters and what we might feel about our power relationship to who they are … and what we can do about it.”