Undercover policing and social protest – two diverse yet interlinked issues whose moral nuances can be difficult to fully unpick, let alone reflect in art.

Yet, this is the task that Brighton-based creatives Matt Adams and Jem Wall have set themselves.

Operation Black Antler, a joint project of Adams’ Blast Theory and Wall’s Hydrocracker “immersive” theatre groups, places audience members in the position of an undercover policeman.

It is, as Wall suggests, a very unorthodox, site-specific, four-act theatre experience: act one begins when you receive a text message summoning you to a secret briefing.

“Of course the whole thing is a fiction,” says Adams, “but it feels very real when you’re inside it. We’re putting you in a position which feels like you’re in another world, and you have to take responsibility for your behaviour.”

The ethical ramifications of the choices an audience member makes in Operation Black Antler are supposed to resonate, to open up a wider debate about the impact of state surveillance on the public’s right to protest.

As Wall adds, “the audience doesn’t just go off to the pub afterwards and say, ‘oh isn’t it fun being an undercover cop.’

The reason for our immersive approach is that it gives people a deeper, more visceral experience of some important issues.”

Wall’s Hydrocracker company, eight years old to Blast Theory’s 25-year lifespan, has a goal of “democratising theatre space” and has set previous interactive theatre experiences at Brighton Town Hall and the pier.

Adams, meanwhile, was recently engaged in a performance with Blast Theory which involved a smartphone app that harvested personal data from its audience in the manner of corporate companies like Facebook and Google.

The artistic intent of both men, “to try and get people to think about social and political issues in the most effective way we can,” is evident from their careers to date.

It should be stated, however, that the premise of Operation Black Antler has provoked much anger and incredulity, not least on the event’s comments section on the festival website.

Much of the controversy has revolved – in the eyes of Adams and Wall at least – around the perceivably inappropriate and insensitive wording of OBA’s listing in the festival programme, which, as many were quick to point out, could be seen to offer the chance to emulate the experience of undercover agents – like those of the Special Demonstration Squad, including John Dines, who had a two-year romantic relationship with Helen Steel whilst all the time spying on her activity as a social justice campaigner.

“There were two things that we felt were wrong on reflection, that we apologised for and changed,” says Adams.

“One is that we described the experience as ‘thrilling,’ and it was soon pointed out to us that that this is an inappropriate word to talk about something which has turned lives upside down.

“The other thing is we made a connection between those women who were the targets of undercover police surveillance from the Special Demonstration Squad and our project, which gave people the belief that what we are doing is a restaging of that. This is not the case.”

Wall adds that these missteps were “thoughtless and crass, and we deeply regret causing genuine upset and hurt,” and Adams reiterates the objective of Operation Black Antler.

“We are not telling a story of those women, we are not telling the story of the Special Demonstration Squad.

“What we are doing is taking an imaginative approach to create a new experience, that draws on some of those elements but also draws on other areas of undercover policing.”

Wall says that “in the case of the Special Demonstration Squad, there is no moral ambiguity. It was abuse – no ifs, no buts.

We have to ask questions about surveillance; I don’t have the answers, but theatre to us is about engaging with these debates.”

Whilst the fictional scenario of Operation Black Antler is carefully constructed, it relies on a considerable element of improvisation for it to work – the unpredictable actions of the audience members involved.

And, for Adams and Wall, herein lies the intrigue of the show. “Nobody’s seen the show in full format yet,” says Wall. “Least of all us."

Operation Black Antler

Secret location, May 7 to 8, May 10 to 14, May 17 to 21, May 24 to 28.

From 6pm to 9pm, every 15 minutes, £20. Call 01273 709709.