Exploring Multistories: Narrative, Immersion and Chronology

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Abstract

The chapter considers the relationship between narrative and immersive audience experience, particularly in relation to Punchdrunk’s trademark technique of spreading scenes throughout large buildings for audiences to seek out and discover. The chapter explores how this structure affects immersive experience drawing on theoretical approaches to narrative and time by Genette and Ricoeur, arguing that the perceived rules of engagement within an immersive theatre production will affect both what is meant by “story” and how that story is experienced. The chapter concludes with a comparative case study of the endings of Punchdrunk’s It Felt Like A Kiss and The Duchess of Malfi (both 2010), analysing how the two immersive productions dovetailed form and story with varying degrees of success.

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Independent ScholarLondonUK

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