Picture this: The year is 2167, and climate change has caused temperatures to rise to a level so high that the human race can longer sustain itself.

That's part of the premise behind Genetic Drift, an immersive theatre production produced by Boca del Lupo and created by Jesse Richardson-award winning Pi Theatre.

Built on the speculative fiction concept introduced by Boca del Lupo and the Performance Corporation's Expedition Series, Genetic Drift answers the question, "how will climate change affect the world 150 years in the future?"

Pi Theatre's artistic director, Richard Wolfe, was tasked with coming up with an answer to that question.

"I thought, possibly, in the face of climate change, we’re going to have to adapt to something quite extreme," he said in an interview with the Straight at Boca del Lupo's micro performance space on Granville Island.

"How’s that going to happen? Well, perhaps through genetic engineering, because just recently, with CRISPR technology, they are now able to remove and splice in DNA from other places into human embryos," he added.

For Wolfe and writer Amy Lee Lavoie, this meant introducing a character from the future.

Played by Thomas Jones, Gary 3 is a human/creature hybrid who has been forcibly kidnapped from the future and brought to modern times for the viewing pleasure of audience members. 

"The role is challenging in that it's not an entirely human character, so getting your head and your body around how this creature with some other DNA spliced into it actually physically moves and communicates was difficult," said Jones. "That, and also to imagine what his perspective is when being confronted with people like us, today."

For Keltie Forsythe, who plays the voice of Lucy the computer, the technology that's responsible for bringing Gary to present day, Genetic Drift offers viewers a chance not to watch a show, but to really experience it. 

"We hope [the audience] will be sucked in by Gary—he's a charming guy," she says. "We hope that they'll feel some things around Gary, and what he’s going through 150 years into the future as this kind of genetically-engineered creature, and the kind of alienation he feels."

Curious about how Boca del Lupo and Pi Theatre made it happen? Check out an exclusive preview of Genetic Drift in the video below. 

Genetic Drift plays at Boca del Lupo's Fishbowl on Granville Island from April 5 to 8. Find tickets here.