Audience Participation and Neoliberal Value: Risk, Agency and Responsibility in Immersive Theatre

Alston, A (2013) Audience Participation and Neoliberal Value: Risk, Agency and Responsibility in Immersive Theatre Performance Research, 18 (2). pp. 128-138.

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Abstract

This article identifies a value set shared between the neoliberal ethos and modes of audience participation frequently promoted in immersive theatre: values such as risk-taking, individual freedoms and personal responsibility. The promotion of self-made opportunity, premised either on opportunistic risk-taking, or the savvy attitude that comes with experience and familiarity with immersive theatre participation, will be addressed as valorising another shared value: entrepreneurialism. A participatory mode will be introduced that I call ‘entrepreneurial participation’: a kind of audience participation privileged in much immersive theatre performance identifying the enactment of neoliberal value. While entrepreneurial participation may be deliberately deployed by audiences as a participatory tactic, it will be argued that this particular participatory mode is frequently expected of audiences, or at least privileged as a means of engaging with performance. Work by the British immersive theatre company Punchdrunk will be taken as a means of illustrating this suggestion, particularly The Masque of the Red Death (2007). The article begins with a definition of immersive theatre that focuses on the figuring of participating audiences, paying particular attention to the relativity of participatory freedoms and the centrality of experience production. Hedonistic and narcissistic experiences will pull focus and will be approached as a possible reason behind immersive theatre's susceptibility to absorption within the experience industry and co-optation by innovative marketers. The article then establishes a set of shared values between the neoliberal ethos and audience participation in The Masque of the Red Death. Risk perception research, especially that arising from the Oregon Group and Stephen Lyng, will be touched on as a means of introducing some political considerations arising from the notion of entrepreneurial participation. A more optimistic, but ultimately sobering set of responses will be offered in conclusion.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions :	Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences > School of Arts > Dance, Film and Theatre
Authors :	Authors Email ORCID Alston, A UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Date :	14 June 2013
Identification Number :	https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2013.807177
Uncontrolled Keywords :	Immersive theatre, Punchdrunk, Audience participation, neoliberalism, politics of participation, Entrepreneurial participation
Related URLs :	Publisher
Additional Information :	This is an electronic version of an article published as Alston A (2013). Audience Participation and Neoliberal Value: Risk, Agency and Responsibility in Immersive Theatre. Performance Research 18(2):128-138, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rprs20/18/2
Depositing User :	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited :	09 Dec 2013 20:02
Last Modified :	16 Dec 2014 02:08
URI:	http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/id/eprint/803546

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