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Reframing Immersive Theatre: The Politics and Pragmatics of Participatory Performance
Open accessAbstract
This essay explores the similarities of immersive theatre and videogames, drawing on Virtual Reality and computer gaming discourse to examine the player/participant’s experience of immersion in performances such as Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man (2013). Addressing aspects of perceptual and psychological immersion as articulated by VR and gaming theorists Marie-Laure Ryan and Gordon Calleja, the author argues for an understanding of immersion in Punchdrunk productions as active, playful and fundamentally ludic. Like a videogame, immersive theatre such as The Drowned Man insists on the audience-performer’s ‘hyper-attention’ (Hayles) and instinctive response to a multi-dimensional performance text.
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“James Frieze (2016a, 1-3) asserts that the opposition between immersive and traditional theatre that can be observed within both academic and commercial discourse is oversimpli fi ed and not helpful, as it ' fails to consider the participatory nature of all theatre and performance ' .”
From The route to immersion: a conceptual framework for cross-disciplinary immersive theatre and experiences (2023) · cites this paper as Frieze (2016a, 1-3)
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Sabie, D., Sheta, H., Ferdous, H. S., Kopalakrishnan, V., & Ahmed, S. I. (2023) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3544548.3581005 · Cited by 33
Delta-band audience brain synchrony tracks engagement with live and recorded dance
Rai, L. A., Lee, H., Becke, E., Trenado, C., Abad-Hernando, S., Sperling, M., Vidaurre, D., Wald‐Fuhrmann, M., Richardson, D. C., Ward, J. A., et al. (2025) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2025.112922 · Cited by 29
Expanding the Design Space for Technology-Mediated Theatre Experiences
Nicholas, M. J., Daffara, S. C., & Paulos, E. (2021) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3461778.3462123 · Cited by 18
Ramos, J. L., Dunne-Howrie, J., Maravala, P. J., & Simon, B. (2020) · International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media · doi:10.1080/14794713.2020.1766282 · Cited by 16
Punpeng, G., & Yodnane, P. (2023) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-023-02485-1 · Cited by 15
“The word ‘ immersive ’ earned such a signi fi cant amount of commercial value that it was used extensively in every ‘ performance event in which the audience moved, or in which they were somehow surrounded or emplaced by the performance ’ (Frieze 2016b, 1).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Klich, R. E.
- Affiliations
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Rosemary E. Klich
- Venue
- Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Published
- 2016
- OpenAlex
- W2601209852
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 7.58
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks (publishedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Theatre and Performance Studies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Arts and Performance Studies
- Keywords
- immersive theatre, video games, immersion, Punchdrunk, virtual reality, computer gaming, audience participation, ludic experience, Marie-Laure Ryan, Hayle
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