A study of the impacts of digital technologies on twenty-first-century theatre

Abstract

This dissertation analyses digital technologies and how they function within the theatre-making context. Specifically, the study looks at virtual reality platforms and live streams as the two prevalent technologies that feature prominently in the case studies I refer to. A mixed research approach was employed as access to past performances was made through a mix of secondary sources and personal notes. The dissertation is contextualised in a literature review consisting of an analysis of the socio-economic climate before the rise of digital technologies and a historical overview within which said digital technologies developed. The critical framework used delves into concepts which are heavily tied to virtual reality such as the concepts of the virtual, the real, the actual, and the fictive. Ferdinand De Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce provide a semiological perspective to the discussion whilst Jean Baudrillard provides his phenomenological point of view. The historical context and critical frameworks provided come together in three case studies where Ex-Machina’s and The Builders Association’s work is discussed together with a performance that was devised by the Theatre and Performing Arts students at Falmouth University in which I was involved as performer. The critical frameworks discussed are used to dissect the performances and to engage with how digital technologies are employed in theatre. It is evident that digital technologies have become a crucial aspect of life in the twenty-first-century and this dissertation aims to shed light on the possibilities and challenges that are created when these technologies are incorporated into a theatre-making context.