Dissertation issues - and solutions!

For my dissertation I am writing about immersive performance and whether or not this has lost its classification as theatrical performance and has instead become spectacle.

However, the majority of immersive performances, due to the fact that the majority are held outside, are held in the summer and therefore in terms of looking for performances to go and see there has been a distinct lack.

 

While I worked on the site specific performance 'A-roving We Will Go' over the summer, which did have immersive elements it was not, specifically, an immersive performance. This did, however, lead me to looking outside the conventional forms of immersive performances and instead look at the performances that fit the parameters of immersive performance.

 

I did manage to find a very well known and aclaimed company doing a run of immersive performance in London but unfortunately it opens eight days before my dissertation is due for hand in and therefore would not allow me enough time to write about it and form conclusions based upon it in a way that would gel with the rest of my essay.

 

This in turn lead me to public Murder Mysteries. In a public murder mystery, the audience, while spectators, are also a part of the performance in that some may be given lines, they have the chance to explore the scenes and interact with the performers if they choose, and are often involved in the unmasking of the 'culpret'. This makes it, by definition, immersive performance.

 

I managed to find one locally in Poole, where a company which runs murder mystery events was to stage one in a small restaurant, which was to take place tonight, however just as I was about to leave for the event they contacted me to let me know it had been cancelled due to people being unable to attend, I suspect due to the high level of flooding in the area.

 

As this was one of the only two immersive performances I had managed to find in a 130 mile radius after searching for a month, I was understandably worried. However, this has led to an idea that could be a very interesting perspective to write about. After looking at the murder mystery games online to do some research on whether the events would class as immersive performance I found a company that makes the murder mystery games that does class them as immersive performance and therefore have decided to stage one for research.

 

I have also been sent the information for another immersive performance which is currently running in London - The Architects. This is an immersive performance in a converted biscuit factory, and despite the fact that it is being run through the National Theatre has been plagued by bad reviews. This makes it an interesting study as for such an aclaimed establishment to put on a show that has been subject to such criticism, could this be due to the nature of the performance itself? Immersive performance has a history of bad critiques.

 

I have managed to get tickets of it, and between these two performances I will have two performances that, while in the same performance type, are far from each other on the scale of immersive performance.