Immersive Theatre

The immersive theatre is part of the experience economy. Two companies in London have done this very well, one the Shunt (1998), which is a non-profit company that getting backing from Arts Council England. They are a group of actors that put on live shows around London in unusual places. The other is Punchdrunk (2000), which is also part of the Arts Council England and can be described as the pioneering company that changes the way audiences see their shows. White (2012) has stated that the immersive theatre has become adopted by many to develop new ways of performing to an audience to make them participants of the experience.

My experience from the 451 started like this; from the first second that I started walking down the street, I could see lights in the distance and hear the beat of the music, building my anticipation. This is when my question started of what was going to happen next; I had stayed away from reading any synopses to try and see if I could capture the story from what was going on around me. Machon (2013) looks at the immersive theatre as a way for people that don’t see themselves as theatregoers, but are drawn to the experience because they enjoy a more alternative performance. She then goes on to discuss how the immersive theatre is advertised using unusual methods, and they heavily rely on word of mouth. This was very much the case for me when it came to the 451 play as I don’t think I would have heard about it other wise.

An interesting way of looking at how young people push to attend theatre events is what Radbourne (2014) says that with immersive theatre young peoples cultural experience need to be enhanced. I do think that it was interesting that there were so many young people at the 451 play.

Figure 2: Photograph from 451 Play (2015)

Being immersed in a play is one way of describing what the experience economy is about. Walmsley and Franks (2011) look at the experience economy as a way of evoking the audience to get involved with their surroundings and how the event organiser are the gatekeepers and facilitators of experiences. From my experience at the 451 when I arrived was, I walking in to the crowd I was given part of a book that had been marked Banned. Then part way into the performance a male actor performed a monologue. The reaction from the crowd was to walk toward him, passing any pieces of the Banned books forward to be burnt in the fire see Figure 2. He asked in his monologue several questions to the audience, which we all answered, making us feel like part of a mob, there for a common cause. Bernstein (2007) looks at the behavior of audiences and how there has been a dramatic change in how participants interact with what is goes on around them. This would explain why during the play I felt the need to respond to the questions. Skold (2010) looks more at the effects immersive experience has on the economy, and how these factors such as ethics, policies and finances can effect how the organizes puts on events. The 451 play economy factors that I think they should have taken in to consideration is play was a free event. Crowd control was crucial for the organisers to take in to consideration, as they did not know how many people would be in attendance. On the other hand Hombury (2015) looks at if there is good experience for participants then in the long term the organisation will build customer-loyalty, and if customer experience management is done correctly then this will also build loyalty. Organisers need to market their art in a way that consumers will want to consume it.