What’s better than an audio book or a short film? An app that combines both, with the added bonus of an all-star cast
Words by Emma Mason
We all know that familiar feeling of lying in bed late at night, or embarking on a long haul flight (well, when you could – sigh), frantically trying to find something captivating to either watch or read. Well, Alexander, a brand new digital storytelling platform solves this conundrum by combining both of these together to create a unique and immersive experience of original non-fiction stories.
The app, which launched this week, comprises of original features that are set to transport you to unexplored lands and places, perfect for some lockdown escapism. Much like a perfectly curated menu, each story will begin with a very short film that whets the appetite and sets the scene. This will then transition into the full story, displayed as written text on screen for the main event. Then to finish, there is the added option of audio, read by the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, offering the pièce de résistance.
Cameron Lamb, the founder of Alexander, said that he “wanted to create something different. To bring together three familiar mediums, entwined, working cohesively together, to deliver an immersive world.”
The stories are as diverse as the people who created them. Two-time Booker Prize-nominated Chigozie Obioma tells the story of a Nigerian university under strict control by a Catholic priest, while National Book Critics Circle Award winner Xiaolu Guo revisits the China of her childhood at a time when two mass-murdering brothers were dominating news headlines.
Lamb felt it important for this app to be for “a global audience starved of those intimate moments, transporting stories that give real access to international and unexplored subjects and places.”
And celebrities that will make up this all-star cast include, Richard E. Grant, David Tenant, Emma Corrin, David Tenant and Bill Nighy, to name just a few.
With cinemas still remaining closed Alexander’s immersive experience could be just the thing to cure you of your cinematic woes, but all with a creative twist.
National Book Award winner, Colum McCann says "Alexander wants to find the edge, define it, then push it even further. Here you get a chance to dwell in the true deep heart of a story. It's not just a fierce new island for readers, writers, actors and filmmakers, but a Galapagos for ideas too.”
A monthly subscription will only set you back £3.99 a month, with a 14 day complimentary trial included, a small price to pay to be able to have David Tenant narrate you a story. Well, we think so.