How Not To Use Digital Media in Theatre

There is a great debate about whether or not technology is aiding societal development and that is a question even scholars and theorists have trouble answering. Unfortunately, in an age where digital technology is a dominating medium in interaction and function, there is an oversimplification of the way we discuss the impact of technology in our lives and theatre makers are not exempt from this discussion of critical making in their performance texts. As Matt Ratto explains, critical making “emphasizes the shared acts of making rather than the evocative object” (253), something that Avignon’s Grensgeval (Grensgeval 2017) and Toronto Fringe’s Love and Information (Love and Information 2017) both fell short in.

In her introduction to the english translation of Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies Lehmann, Karen Jürs-Munby states that “the impact of media on performance manifests itself not only in the use of high-tech ‘multimedia’ onstage, however… in its very opposite: theatre on a bare stage with minimalist, pared down aesthetics…” (10). Grensgeval managed to make some sort of impact with a minimalist set and slow, barely-there movement of dancers in comparison to a giant screen with a live video feed, although what kind of impact, I don’t know. That might be due to the language barrier, or perhaps it was that the actors spoke dialogue into the camera, which projected on the screen to the audience for a long declamatory portion of the performance. I could not tie-in the role of the piece of technology to the story occurring, and because the performance text didn’t to explore that relationship in depth, it seemed unnecessary.

On the other hand, while Love and Information was not exclusively about the human relationship to technology, it did provide commentary on the problem of overload of information that is a staple in this New Media Age. But that’s all it seemed to do; provide commentary, no discussion. With no investigation of the subject matter in ways other than a focus of performance, the ensemble merely put a voice to the script, presented it as a finished product, and left the audience to make their own conclusions, leaving the performance text analytically flat and lacking any critical making.

In the critical making process “the final prototypes are not intended to be displayed and to speak for themselves. Instead, they are considered a means to an end, and achieve value though the act of shared construction, joint conversation, and reflection” (Ratto 253). Creators must ask and show the reason for incorporation of digital media. It’s not enough to simply say ‘it’s good’ or ‘it’s bad’ or to put a camera on stage and use it as a gimmick; it must be investigated deeper in relation to our complex relationship to the digital medium and explore critical making.

Works Cited

Grensgeval. By Elfriede Jelinek. Dir. Guy Cassiers and Maud Le Pladec. Perf. Samuel Baidoo, Machias Bosschaerts, Katelijne Damen, Pieter Desmet, Sarah Fife, Berta Fornell Serrat, Julia Godino Llorens, Abke Haring, Aki Iwamoto, Daan Jaartsveld, Han Kerckhoffs, Levente Lukacs, Hernan Mancebo Martinez, Alexa Moya Panksep, Marcus Alexander Roydes, Lukas Smolders, Meike Stevens, Pauline van Nuffel, Sandrine Wouters, Bianca Zueneli. Parc des Expositions, Avignon. Performance. 18 July 2017.

Jürs-Munby, Karen. Introduction. Postdramatic Theatre, by Hans-Thies Lehmann. New York: Routledge, 2006. 1-16. Print.

Love and Information. By Caryl Churchill. Dir. Andrea Donaldson. Perf. Armando Biasi, Ethan Chapman, Allison Gallagher, Alexandra Grant, Madison Hurrell, Riana Isenberg, Mariah Lambertus, Jocelyn LoSole-Stringer, Allison Medeiros, Krystle Meixner, Nic Mencia, Ceilidh Morrison, Antonio Ortega, Andrea Pang, Maggie Trepanier, Kayla Walker, and Kessia Warren. Annex Theatre, Toronto. Performance. 9 July 2017.

Ratto, Matt. "Critical Making: Conceptual and Material Studies in Technology and Social Life: The Information Society: An International Journal, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 252-260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2011.583819. Web. Accessed 24 July 2017.