Interactive, Asynchronous, Non-Ludic

Wayfinding: Taxonomy > Interactive & Gamified Theatre > The Spectrum of Interactivity and Gamification in Digital Theatre > Interactive, Asynchronous, Non-Ludic

This category of shows does not require the audience or the performers to share the same time period to engage with the work; the actors are pre-recorded, and the audience can engage with the production whenever they wish. Ontologically, this is closer to a videogame in that an audience member/user can engage with the show in their own time and have the program, if not the performers, react and interact immediately in real-time. There are narrative branches that can be selected differently with each engagement, creating a unique experience for the individual user. However, there are no other ludic elements including points, levelling-up, player-characters (you the audience member are yourself, not a role), special items, puzzles to solve, or enemies to destroy. There is only the story to immerse into.

Pre-pandemic works that fall into this category include Blast Theory’s Karen, an app connecting the user to a ‘life coach’ whose own life, ironically, seems in tatters. The character Karen, and her eponymous app, are both invasive of the user, gathering data and forming judgments based on the user’s input which in turn responds to Karen's messy life. Blast Theory designed the theatrical app to demonstrate the ramifications of invasive, ever-present digital technology and data surveillance, offering the player-audience a data report at the end.

During the pandemic, Know Theatre’s Lighthouse at the End of the World featured then artistic director Andrew Hungerford performing live over Zoom at the beginning and end of the show, but the work is now available fully pre-recorded on the theatre company’s website, allowing a user to click through a unique series of performances every time they engage Carmel Clavin also turned her pre-pandemic solo performance, The Marvelous Mechanical Musical Maiden (which featured digital hardware inside her dress so she could trigger musical accompaniment during the show), into a pre-recorded, interactive digital performance; the audience could choose which songs and tales of historical figures they engaged with, and Clavin was not live during this.