ABSTRACT

Technology in theatre exists almost exclusively in the spectacle of performance, and though it has largely defined the societies of modern drama, it has rarely enabled new forms of dramatic literature. Technology creates spectacle, serves as subject, yet remains disconnected from the structure of popular and avant garde theatre alike. Directors and designers incorporate new tools and techniques to achieve certain effects in a piece’s realisation, and newly constructed theatres are built to incorporate modern innovations that often prove useful and provocative to their artists. This trend has continued with the advent of digital technology, which enables amazing new uses of lighting, sound, and projection in performance. More adventurous directors and performers have experimented with emerging technologies enabling telepresence, ‘virtual’ theatrical worlds, and many forms of multimedia performance. The great body of this work consists of re-interpretation of traditional texts and creation of new works with either minimal text or none at all. It has not yet extended the rich tradition of dramatic literature, even the seemingly related epic theatre or the ‘algorithmic’ works of Beckett and others. Our own collaboration, between engineer and playwright, has led us to pursue this direction, explained below in the context of a particular work.