Enlightening the senses : audience experience in immersive and sensorial theatre

Abstract

When audience members attend theatrical events, they typically expect to engage with the performance through, among other things, the spectacle and visual aesthetics emanating from the stage. What happens when this visual spectacle is removed? Experiments with darkness in the last decades have set performances in complete pitchblack darkness, thus confounding those traditional expectations. The experience of an audience member attending this type of genre, the genre of theatre in the dark, differs from that of conventional productions. This is due to the use of immersion and sensorial stimuli which are needed to keep the audience engaged throughout the darkened performance. This dissertation explores this Blackout Theatre/Theatre in the Dark genre and looks at how sensory stimuli are of utmost importance in order to give the audience an immersive and unique experience.