Punchdrunk’s Kabeiroi: Taking Immersive Theatre to the Streets
-
Déborah Prudhon
is a lecturer at Aix-Marseille University. She wrote a PhD thesis on the relation between fiction and reality in contemporary English theatre. She published several articles on the work of Tim Crouch and on Punchdrunk’s immersive theatre, including “Punchdrunk’s Immersive Theatre: From the End to the Edge” (
Sillages critiques , 2018), “Kabeiroi by Punchdrunk” (Études britanniques contemporaines , 2018), “Sleep No More de Punchdrunk: Immersion dans l’univers du film noir” (Coup de Théâtre , 2018), and “Du théâtre immersif dans son salon: Punchdrunk, Parabolic Theatre, Darkfield” (Théâtre ǀ Public , 2021). She co-organised a symposium on immersive theatre which took place in Paris in January 2020 and co-editedCoup de Théâtre’s volume on anglophone and francophone approaches to immersive theatre (2021).
Abstract
Punchdrunk is often considered the pioneer within the field of immersive theatre, which “[places] the audience at the heart of the work” (Machon 22) and abolishes the distinction between stage and auditorium to merge them into one single space. Founded by Felix Barrett in 2000, the British company is known for creating detailed theatrical worlds that inhabit the space of disused buildings in which the audience is invited to roam free.
Whilst most of Punchdrunk’s productions maintain a separation between the real world and the imagined world by staying within the confines of a building, Kabeiroi (2017) opens up to the busy streets of London and immerses the participants in real life. This ambulatory theatrical exploration superimposes the world of fiction onto the geography of the city, weaving a web of complex interactions between the two.
How does Kabeiroi interact with the city it pervades? To what extent does the urban space inform the performance, and, conversely, does the immediate reality impact the participants’ experience and immersive feeling? Using concepts such as performance walks (Tomlin), “host” and “ghost” (McLucas), frames (Goffman), and errant immersion (Alston), this article explores the way Kabeiroi blurs the boundaries between street and stage, participants, performers, and passersby, reality and fiction.
About the author
is a lecturer at Aix-Marseille University. She wrote a PhD thesis on the relation between fiction and reality in contemporary English theatre. She published several articles on the work of Tim Crouch and on Punchdrunk’s immersive theatre, including “Punchdrunk’s Immersive Theatre: From the End to the Edge” (Sillages critiques, 2018), “Kabeiroi by Punchdrunk” (Études britanniques contemporaines, 2018), “Sleep No More de Punchdrunk: Immersion dans l’univers du film noir” (Coup de Théâtre, 2018), and “Du théâtre immersif dans son salon: Punchdrunk, Parabolic Theatre, Darkfield” (Théâtre ǀ Public, 2021). She co-organised a symposium on immersive theatre which took place in Paris in January 2020 and co-edited Coup de Théâtre’s volume on anglophone and francophone approaches to immersive theatre (2021).
Works Cited
Alston, Adam. “Making Mistakes in Immersive Theatre: Spectatorship and Errant Immersion.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 4.1 (2016): 61–73. Print.10.1515/jcde-2016-0006Search in Google Scholar
Biggin, Rose. Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience: Space, Game and Story in the Work of Punchdrunk. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Print.10.1007/978-3-319-62039-8Search in Google Scholar
Cole, Emma. “Fragments, Immersivity, and Reception: Punchdrunk on Aeschylus’ Kabeiroi.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 28.4 (2021): 510–525. Print.10.1007/s12138-020-00578-9Search in Google Scholar
Corlett, Anne. “Punchdrunk’s Kabeiroi: A Shapeshifting Six-Hour Mystery Tour of London.” The Guardian, 27 Sept. 2017. Web. 21 Dec. 2022. <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/27/punchdrunk-kabeiroi-immersive-experience-aeschylus>. Search in Google Scholar
Cox, Anne. “Kabeiroi: Review.” Stage Review, 27 Oct. 2017. Web. 24 May 2022.<https://www.stagereview.co.uk/theatre-review/kabeiroi-review>. Search in Google Scholar
Davies, Char. “Virtual Space.” Space: In Science, Art and Society. Eds. François Penz, Gregory Radick, and Robert Howell. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. 69–104. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Gardner, Lyn. “The Borough: Review.” The Guardian, 11 June 2013. Web. 24 May 2022. <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jun/11/borough-review>. Search in Google Scholar
–-. “Is Immersive Theatre Growing Up or Growing Too Big, Too Quickly?” The Stage, 8 Apr. 2018. Web. 12 June 2022. <https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2018/immersive-theatre-growing-growing-big-quickly>. Search in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organisation of Experience. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1986. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Goursaud, Bastien, and Déborah Prudhon. “Kabeiroi by Punchdrunk.” Études britanniques contemporaines, 1 Mar. 2018. Web. 24 May 2022. <http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/4408>. 10.4000/ebc.4408Search in Google Scholar
Iezzi, Teressa. “Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett Brings Theater to Life, Literally.” Fast Company, 23 Jan. 2015. Web. 24 May 2022. <https://www.fastcompany.com/1679201/punchdrunks-felix-barrett-brings-theater-to-life-literally>. Search in Google Scholar
Logan, Brian. “Felix Barrett: Up to His Ears in Theatre.” The Independent, 9 June 2012. Web. 21 Dec. 2022.<https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/felix-barrett-up-to-his-ears-in-theatre-7833975.html>. Search in Google Scholar
Machon, Josephine. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.10.1007/978-1-137-01985-1_10Search in Google Scholar
–-, and Punchdrunk. The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia. London: Routledge, 2019. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Montola, Markus, Jaakko Stenros, and Annika Waern. Pervasive Games: Theory and Design. Experiences on the Boundary Between Life and Play. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2009. Print.10.1201/9780080889795Search in Google Scholar
Nield, Sophie. “The Rise of the Character Called Spectator.” Contemporary Theatre Review 18 (2008): 531–544. Print.10.1080/10486800802492855Search in Google Scholar
Punchdrunk. Homepage. Web. 24 May 2022. <https://www.punchdrunk.com/project/kabeiroi>.Search in Google Scholar
Tomlin, Liz. Acts and Apparitions: Discourses on the Real in Performance Practice and Theory, 1990–2010. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2013. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Turner, Catherine. “Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance.” New Theatre Quarterly 20.4 (2004): 373–390. Print.10.1017/S0266464X04000259Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Place-Making, Identities, and the Politics of Urban Life: Theatre and the City. An Introduction
- Punchdrunk’s Kabeiroi: Taking Immersive Theatre to the Streets
- (Un)real City: Spatial and Temporal Ghosting in ANU Productions’ The Party to End All Parties
- Performing the City: Space, Movement, and Memory in O Ben’Groes at Droed Amser
- A Sense of Place: Staging Psychogeographies of the UK Housing Crisis
- Interrelating Necrocities and Borderscapes in the Migration Performances The Jungle, Lampedusa, and The Walk
- The Impossibility of Fleeing: The Deconstruction of Urban Space in Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living
- Place on Parade: Consumerism and Disidentification in the Parade Genre
- Criticising Capitalism in the City and on the Stage: The City Street Movement Occupy Wall Street and Tim Price’s Protest Song
- “Racism Isn’t Just Someone Shouting at You from a Passing Car”: Roy Williams in Conversation with Gemma Edwards
- “Violence, Ritual, and Space”: Aleshea Harris in Conversation with Julie Vatain-Corfdir and Jaine Chemmachery
- “Your Proscenium Is as High as the Sky”: Anne Hamburger in Conversation with Julie Vatain-Corfdir and Émilie Rault
- Walkshop Paris: Notes on a Creative Process with the Urban Landscape
- Dramaturgy and Design: A Roundtable Discussion with Anne Hamburger, Cristiana Mazzoni, and Andrew Todd
- Jeanette R. Malkin, Eckart Voigts, and Sarah J. Ablett, eds. A Companion to British-Jewish Theatre since the 1950s. London: Methuen, 2021, x + 259 pp., £103.50 (hardback), £35.95 (paperback), £82.80 (ebook PDF and Epub).
- Tiziana Morosetti, ed. Africa on the Contemporary London Stage. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, xv + 246 pp., £99.99 (hardcover).
- Liz Tomlin. Political Dramaturgies and Theatre Spectatorship: Provocations for Change. London: Bloomsbury, 2019, viii + 205 pp. £85.00 (hardback), £28.99 (paperback), £26.09 (PDF ebook).
- Caridad Svich. Toward a Future Theatre: Conversations during a Pandemic. London: Bloomsbury, 245 pp., $26.95 (paperback), $90.00 (hardback), $24.25 (PDF ebook), $24.25 (Epub and Mobi ebook).
- Dom O’Hanlon, ed. Theatre in Times of Crisis: 20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times. With an Introduction by Edward Bond. London: Bloomsbury, 2020, xxii + 296 pp., $30.02 (paperback), $25.16 (ebook PDF and Epub).
- Peta Tait. Theory for Theatre Studies: Emotion. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021, vii + 188 pp., £45.00 (hardback), £12.99 (paperback), £9.35 (PDF ebook), £9.35 (Epub and Mobi).
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Place-Making, Identities, and the Politics of Urban Life: Theatre and the City. An Introduction
- Punchdrunk’s Kabeiroi: Taking Immersive Theatre to the Streets
- (Un)real City: Spatial and Temporal Ghosting in ANU Productions’ The Party to End All Parties
- Performing the City: Space, Movement, and Memory in O Ben’Groes at Droed Amser
- A Sense of Place: Staging Psychogeographies of the UK Housing Crisis
- Interrelating Necrocities and Borderscapes in the Migration Performances The Jungle, Lampedusa, and The Walk
- The Impossibility of Fleeing: The Deconstruction of Urban Space in Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living
- Place on Parade: Consumerism and Disidentification in the Parade Genre
- Criticising Capitalism in the City and on the Stage: The City Street Movement Occupy Wall Street and Tim Price’s Protest Song
- “Racism Isn’t Just Someone Shouting at You from a Passing Car”: Roy Williams in Conversation with Gemma Edwards
- “Violence, Ritual, and Space”: Aleshea Harris in Conversation with Julie Vatain-Corfdir and Jaine Chemmachery
- “Your Proscenium Is as High as the Sky”: Anne Hamburger in Conversation with Julie Vatain-Corfdir and Émilie Rault
- Walkshop Paris: Notes on a Creative Process with the Urban Landscape
- Dramaturgy and Design: A Roundtable Discussion with Anne Hamburger, Cristiana Mazzoni, and Andrew Todd
- Jeanette R. Malkin, Eckart Voigts, and Sarah J. Ablett, eds. A Companion to British-Jewish Theatre since the 1950s. London: Methuen, 2021, x + 259 pp., £103.50 (hardback), £35.95 (paperback), £82.80 (ebook PDF and Epub).
- Tiziana Morosetti, ed. Africa on the Contemporary London Stage. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, xv + 246 pp., £99.99 (hardcover).
- Liz Tomlin. Political Dramaturgies and Theatre Spectatorship: Provocations for Change. London: Bloomsbury, 2019, viii + 205 pp. £85.00 (hardback), £28.99 (paperback), £26.09 (PDF ebook).
- Caridad Svich. Toward a Future Theatre: Conversations during a Pandemic. London: Bloomsbury, 245 pp., $26.95 (paperback), $90.00 (hardback), $24.25 (PDF ebook), $24.25 (Epub and Mobi ebook).
- Dom O’Hanlon, ed. Theatre in Times of Crisis: 20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times. With an Introduction by Edward Bond. London: Bloomsbury, 2020, xxii + 296 pp., $30.02 (paperback), $25.16 (ebook PDF and Epub).
- Peta Tait. Theory for Theatre Studies: Emotion. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021, vii + 188 pp., £45.00 (hardback), £12.99 (paperback), £9.35 (PDF ebook), £9.35 (Epub and Mobi).
