Immersed?

Over at Kettle, Gemma Hurst has a look at immersive theatre - the shows that get the audience in on the action. With a wide enough definition to include pantomime and those live art bloodletting sessions I adore, Hurst questions whether this format is just 'lazy... where inspiration fails you, and so you use the audience to jazz it up a little bit.


Hurst notes that immersive theatre is divisive - people like me who can't wait to throw a shoe at an actor tend to love it, but worries that companies are using it without due care for the audience. The failure to advertise that the audience might end up involved is okay when it's The Krankies at the SECC, but a different issue at Ontroerend Goed's more confrontational numbers.

Hurst is particularly concerned by student or young companies using immersive strategies - an issue that comes under 'ethical choices' for me. It also gives me a chance to remember, fondly, that time that the crew from Lincoln University tried to do an Artaud inspiration production, and I ended up on stage, with a woman in a sexy nurse nurse costume holding my legs while she got dry-humped off a bloke wearing a vicar outfit.

I'm not saying that wasn't fun, but after they'd finished, they just left me on stage. I felt like a spare member at a wedding. For a moment, I was tempted to go full on Criticulous -  remember, I had a square-go with Ontroerend Goed during Audience - but decided to go back to my seat. Later on, the sexy nurse showed me her bum, so I wasn't completely excluded from the shenanigans.

The youngsters, however, didn't really have a clear idea about how to handle an immersed audience. Compared to Dinner is Swerved, which served me food and played cheeky games with the select audience, the Artaud gang didn't make sure I was safe and comfortable. I feel used and a bit dirty (not in a good way).

Much of the enthusiasm for immersive performance in the Edinburgh Fringe came about after Hotel Medea took over Summerhall in 2011. The all-night show got the audience playing various roles, and had time to divide them up into little groups that bordered on therapy sessions. It was a bold, expansive take on Euripides' tragedy (which included other bits of the Medea myth, a coarse cynicism about political manipulation and some unnecessary costumes that showed off female breasts). Managing to engage emotionally - and get five star reviews - it was being used by some student actors as a textbook. 

As it goes, the cast of Hotel Medea was not that good at controlling the audience: it was only the passivity of audiences that let them away with dressing up men as women or adults as children. I decided not to do as I was told, and they couldn't handle it. Luckily, that was just me being a dick and, having 'broken' the illusion, I wandered off (and did enjoy the piece). 

I went to see Audience the next day, and tried my best to 'break' the action (this involved flinging a shoe at the stage, sitting on the stage to watch the second half, calling the audience a bunch of cunts. Contrary to other reports, Ontroerend Goed handles it pretty well. Some reviewers said that the actors struggled if their script was disrupted. But they seemed to deal with my thuggish conduct very well.

Both of these companies did a fair job of immersing the audience - my antics are exceptional, really, and it is not fair to push Hotel Medea's failure to restrain me too far. But they did have a very clear idea of how to work the 'non-actors.' Again, the version of Alice by Fourth Monkey ushered the audience around the space, did one on one interludes and made the crowd feel like guests in a family home (where paedophilia was likely, but...). What's important for me is not whether the company are being lazy, but whether they know what they are doing... and student companies need to be careful...

Performance Collaboration

Immersive theatre involves the audience, meaning that the performers actively insert the audience into the story. Whether that is in a main role or as a small part, such as reading something out on a piece of card, depends on the show being created. But audience participation is the definition Immersive Theatre.

Having recently experienced the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this summer I was able to see a lot of genres of theatre, and quite a lot of those performances required the audience to participate in the productions.

A Divisive Medium

As immersive theatre can occur in different ways, if you are a lover of theatre and conformable with the situation, then being a part of the show can be a great experience. It can make you feel special, by getting you right to the heart of the performance, and almost replicating the experience of the actor.

However, if you are the kind of audience-goer who tends to shy away from going up on stage, and the idea of getting up out of your seat in the auditorium is a frightening concept, then perhaps being involved in that this of show is not for you.

Sadly, though, with immersive theatre you don’t get that option when you are put into a potentially awkward position, as most productions will not publicise in advance the fact that they include audience participation at all.

Critiquing the Form

Additionally, I personally worry that this form of theatre has become a lazy option for a number of young theatre makers. As a performing arts student in the past, I understand how difficult it is to create theatre, and there have been times where I wanted to be lazy and create something half hearted.

So, is immersive theatre lazy? Perhaps in the sense that your original production reaches a point where inspiration fails you, and so you use the audience to jazz it up a little bit.

I witnessed at least three performances in Edinburgh, by young actors who relied upon the audiences to make their show interesting.

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not.

Taking a Risk

Often, when you go to the theatre there is a mixed age range of audience members, and that could have a potential negative impact if you are a theatre maker.

For instance, I went to see a show which involved two audience members acting as compares for the evening. It didn’t require them to be standing directly on stage but they did have to read from a script.

Even this simple concept became a slight issue, as neither compare was English, and both had a lot of trouble reading from the scripts, meaning that the performance was tense at times and the pace slowed right down because of this.

Immersive theatre can be an innovative and exciting form of performance, but it can also be used as a get out clause by the actors involved, and ultimately, its difficulty of use shouldn’t be taken lightly.