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The Passive Gaze and Hyper-Immunised Spectators: The Politics of Theatrical Live-Broadcasting

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Published/Copyright: November 4, 2015

Abstract

This article investigates theatrical livecasting. It argues that live broadcasts by the National Theatre are closer to cinema than to a theatre performance, as the camera shapes the performance and renders the audience passive. Secondly, it analyses Forced Entertainment’s live streams of their durational works and the audience’s involvement through Twitter. It questions the level of involvement and meaningful communication, and finds that such broadcasts must be viewed as artworks in their own right. It finally calls for more research into livecasting and audience involvement, as this phenomenon is likely to increase.

Works Cited

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Performances

And on the Thousandth Night. Dir. Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment. Culturgest, Lisbon. 22 March 2014. Performance.Search in Google Scholar

Frankenstein. Dir. Danny Boyle. Royal National Theatre, London. 21 Oct. 2014. Performance.Search in Google Scholar

King Lear. Dir. Sam Mendes. Royal National Theatre, London. 01 May 2014. Performance.Search in Google Scholar

Quizoola24!. Dir. Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment. Millenium Galleries, Sheffield. 21–22 Nov. 2014. Performance.Search in Google Scholar

Speak Bitterness. Dir. Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment. Hebbel Am Ufer, Berlin. 18 Oct. 2014. Performance.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2015-11-4
Published in Print: 2015-11-1

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Frontmatter
  3. Articles
  4. Flying Free from History and Reality: Dramatic Representations of the “Crocodile Dilemma” in the Theatre of Martin McDonagh
  5. Quoting Poetry, Translating Music (and Vice Versa): Mediation in Tennessee Williams’s Something Cloudy, Something Clear
  6. Staging Childhood Holocaust Survivor Trauma: Diane Samuels’s Kindertransport
  7. “Times long contrasts:” o e d I p u s (2014)
  8. How Diasporic?: Psychogeographies of the New Britain in (Post-)Millennial British Theatre
  9. The Passive Gaze and Hyper-Immunised Spectators: The Politics of Theatrical Live-Broadcasting
  10. Reviews
  11. Jade Rosina McCutcheon and Barbara Sellers-Young, eds. Embodied Consciousness: Performance Technologies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 229 pp., £55. Nicola Shaughnessy, ed. Affective Performance and Cognitive Science: Body, Brain and Being. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, 300 pp., £75.
  12. Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer, Christopher Innes, and Matthew C. Roudané, eds. The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, 479 pp., £ 19, 99.
  13. Birgit Däwes and Marc Maufort, eds. Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance. Brussels: Peter Lang, 2014, 262 pp., € 50.30 (softcover).
  14. Christophe Collard. Artist on the Make: David Mamet’s Work across Media and Genres. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 2012, 366 pp., 25 €.
  15. Vicky Angelaki, ed. Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xxxi + 192 pp., € 67.00.
  16. Dan Rebellato, ed. Modern British Playwrighting 2000–2009. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, ix + 340 pp. (paperback).
  17. Jürs-Munsby, Karen, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles, eds. Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, vii + 324 pp., £65 (hardback), £19.99 (paperback), £19.99 (PDF ebook).
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