Ladies and Gentlemen Follow Me, Please Put on your Beards: Risk, Rules, and Audience Reception in National Theatre Wales.
Through their ‘Theatre Map of Wales’, launched in 2009 and running between 2010-11, National Theatre Wales developed a reputation for theatrical innovation. In their first season the company worked in a series of locations throughout Wales, producing thirteen shows, one per month, many incorporating mobile elements. By reading across responses to five of these National Theatre Wales productions – Shelf Life (Swansea), For Mountain, Sand & Sea (Barmouth), The Weather Factory (Penygroes), Outdoors (Aberystwyth), and The Passion (Port Talbot) – I address the extent to which affording audiences greater agency over their mobility might lead to increased participation possibilities. While participatory performances are frequently praised for offering experiential freedom, this is in tension with the awareness that theatre exists within a managed framework. The research reported in this article demonstrates how an audience’s awareness of structural constraints can be contemporaneous with pleasure taken in feelings of formlessness. It concludes by considering what it means when audiences talk about ‘getting’ a performance – in terms of understanding its potential, and appreciating its value – as well as what happens when they don’t.
Forfatter
- Sedgman, Kirsty
Sprog
- English
Nøgleord
- Publikumsrelation
- Kulturel værdi
- Site-specific
Branche
- Scenekunst
Udgivelsesår
- 2017
Type
- Forskningsartikel
Udgiver/forlag
- University of Bristol
