Immersive Theatre: Transgression and Social Intervention

Abstract

Abstract: Immersive theatre is a recent popular Euro-American theatrical form. In China, most studies regard it as a consumerist product and ignored its innate function of social intervention. This function can be realized by the emphasis on the creative use of space and performer-spectator interaction of immersive theatre, which conforms to the notion of “Theatre of the Oppressed” by Augusto Boal. Vardo, produced by the contemporary Irish theatre group Anu Productions, is a representative piece of politicized immersive theatre. The use of non-theatre space, through which the economic, political and historical dimensions are investigated, is effective at exposing the hidden reality therein, and furthurmore, a critique of society. Meanwhile, this performance transgresses the established performer-spectator boundary of commercialized immersive plays by combining ethical choices with spectators' senses, stimulating their immediate public participation, and finally leading to a reevaluation of established ideas. The potential of immersive theatre for social and historical intervention can be realized by a transgression of theatrical ideas and forms, which, ultimately, surpasses other avant-garde performance.

Key words: Vardo, Anu Productions, immersive theatre, space, spect-actor

Feng Wei. Immersive Theatre: Transgression and Social Intervention[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2017, 39(5): 145-155.

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