Theatre beyond spectatorship: mapping the intersections of theatre and interactivity

Interactive theatre is a category of theatre involving the interactions of audience members in performance. However, within this category, there are any number of non-standardised definitions describing a plethora of practices, theories, and performances. Many theories surrounding this area are often enclosed to a specific emergent definition, but these often elide or omit disparate performances which differ greatly in how their interactivity manifests. This thesis aims to add some structure and consistency to the definition of interactive theatre. Its research question is: “How to define the intersection between theatre and interactivity?” In answering this question, I develop an analytical framework for the rigorous analysis of any interactive theatre performance based on three essential pillars of liveness, co-presence, and performance as central to theatre’s ontology, while maintaining an awareness of the performance’s theatricality and individuality. My methodology is to map a wide corpus of interactive theatre performances along this framework to establish nuanced understandings of the interactivity in theatre. Supporting the framework with existing theories of interactivity, I argue three core types of theatrical interactivity: involved theatre, where audience interaction is essential; participatory theatre, which is typified by an interactive “invitation”; and immersive theatre, which describes the complex category of texts where spectacle and spectator are contracted. In formulating these three types of interactivity, I thus present a robust and cogent analytical framework which not only accommodates interactive theatre texts in all their variety, but is also malleable and expansive for extended future development and usage.