For cinema-goers it would be hard not to have noticed the spectacular rise of event cinema (also known as alternative content or non-feature film screening) which is now a regular feature of programming.

Spearheaded by New York’s Metropolitan Opera which began broadcasting performances live via satellite to cinemas in 2006, the rapid digitisation of cinemas has widened the range of content that can be offered on the big screen.

In 2006 alternative content brought in £200,000 to the UK-wide box office. By 2013 the figure was £18.7million with 111 different events. Opera accounted for the highest number of screenings (44), while theatre (14) accounted for the largest share of the box office.

At the UPP we’ve come late to the party (well what do you expect from the “off-the-date” cinema), as the economics of scale make it unviable to install a satellite dish, meaning we can’t take a live feed. So, for technical reasons, we are still precluded from broadcasting the hugely popular opera and National Theatre productions. But increasingly pre-recordings can be delivered to us on a hard-drive, so now we’re in business! Cinema potentially has a form to suit every type of event. Another established experience is provided by Secret Cinema which has mixed live theatre with classic films for seven years now.

But just how far can one take the fusion of live and screen performance in a cinema? Here in East Oxford we’re about to find out. We were at first intrigued and then excited when theatre company Foolish People approached us a few months ago wanting to stage their latest production in our auditorium. Foolish People have been creating immersive performances since 1989 and this year, for the first time, incorporate cinema into their work with their project Strange Factories.

Taking us deep to the heart of a phantasmagorical film/theatre performance, it’s been described as “a Lumiere Brothers screening that somehow involves a company of Commedia dell’arte players”.

In the show a storyteller searches for the actors who performed in a theatre destroyed by fire to offer them a Faustian pact.

The show is touring UK venues with their own histories and atmosphere chosen by the company, to add another layer to this haunting show.

The atmosphere at the UPP certainly rubbed off on drum and piano duo Unsilent Movies who accompany classic silent films with an improvised live soundtrack.

I felt that it was one of the best evenings I’ve had at the cinema since I took the helm, so I’m really looking forward to their return in Halloween week for the atmospheric 1925 Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Cheney.

Let the hauntings begin!