Playing a Punchdrunk Game: Immersive Theatre and Videogaming

Abstract

This essay explores the similarities of immersive theatre and videogames, drawing on virtual reality and computer gaming discourse to examine the player/participant’s experience of immersion in performances such as Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man (2013). Addressing aspects of perceptual and psychological immersion as articulated by virtual reality and gaming theorists Marie-Laure Ryan and Gordon Calleja, the author argues for an understanding of immersion in Punchdrunk productions as active, playful, and fundamentally ludic. Like a videogame, immersive theatre such as The Drowned Man insists on the audience-performer’s ‘hyper-attention’ (Hayles) and instinctive response to a multi-dimensional performance text.