Abstract
Immersive theatre makers often go to great lengths to configure and control each aspect and detail of an immersive theatre environment; but what happens when an audience member breaches its borders, while remaining unaware of their transgression? This article explores how the coherence of an immersive theatre aesthetic is not necessarily threatened by acts of ‘errant immersion’, in which the audience strays off an immersive map designed and intended for them. The errantly immersed spectator accepts but accidentally takes too far an invitation to explore, perceiving and folding a range of aesthetic stimuli that are unintended by a designer into their immersive experience of a theatre event. Drawing on studies of immersion, failure and urban dramaturgy in recent theatre and performance discourse, and reflecting on anecdotal experiences of errant immersion in work by dreamthinkspeak and Coney, the article reflects on the creative and constitutive role played by audiences in immersive theatre aesthetics, and assesses the currency of the ‘immersive theatre’ neologism through an address of its core subject: the audience.
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Bionote
Adam Alston is a Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies specialising in immersive and participatory theatre practices, with a particular focus on the aesthetics and politics of audience engagement. More recently he has been addressing notions of labour, secrecy and error in contemporary theatre, and the histories, aesthetics and phenomenology of partial and complete darkness in avant-garde and contemporary theatre and performance. His first monograph, Beyond Immersive Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation, was published with Palgrave Macmillan in early 2016, and he is currently working on a co-edited collection with Martin Welton (QMUL), contracted with Methuen, titled Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre. He is part of the editorial team for Contemporary Theatre Review’s online Interventions, and works as a Creative Associate with the devised, science-led theatre company Curious Directive.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
