Multi-Faced Digitally Native Liveness
This past month, I watched three wildly different shows whose only real connections were their temporal liveness and digitally native platforms.
Nosferatu: A 3D Symphony of Horror
Company: Theater in Quarantine
Platform: YouTube
Time: 1 hr
Like many online performances, I watched this show Not As Intended: Gelb recommended that audiences watch on a phone or a tablet, while I watched streaming on a large television; Gelb recommended we watch in 3D with special glasses, but I opted for the two dimensional version; Gelb recommended using headphones, but I used the speakers attached to the television. None of this was as in-my-face and immersive as intended, Theater in Quarantine has ensured that the work had a 2-D version and would still feel immersive and ideal in a less-than-ideal set-up.
One of the benefits of watching in this situation is being able to see how flat and small the now classic Closet Venue is. This set-up made Theater in Quarantine famous in 2020, where Gelb performed as though in a small proscenium stage to an internet-based audience. While the 3-D glasses would not have covered some of the stage tricks used to create the appearance of larger sets, the 2-D version had a more bas relief appearance – a visual thematic reminiscent of woodcut pictures in some Dracula publications, as well as early cinema like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
While referencing the ‘errors’ of these earlier media – and their creative attempts to cover errors including makeup, layers of sets, painting perspective, and more – there were also the very familiar digital errors including playback issues, frozen images, stuttering, and static. That these mistakes – not like, missing lines, but the small shaking, the imperfect movements and obvious dimensional flaws (which are fantastic references to earlier stage and cinema-craft) – is this what they mean as being part of the joy? Because I am finding it joyful.
Finding WiiLii
Company: Ferryman Collective
Platform: VRChat (basically the only free, user-friendly metaverse anymore)
Time: 1 hr total including onboarding
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Ferryman Collective’s translation of Finding WiiLii incorporated gamification, promenade theatre, and memory play into a tight and tense, but also dreamlike, story set in what seems to be a corporate dystopia and the virtual recreation of a neighbourhood on the edge of Seoul. Questions about how we remember, how digital archives (or computerized archives, at least) can remember for us, how our information is used and misused, and how much effort it takes to get our personal information, our tender and vital memories, back.
There was not a livestreaming option, so I finally downloaded the desktop version of VRChat to my poor long-suffering Surfacebook gen 1 and created an account in order to participate. As with other performances in a VR or metaverse space, the show was slow and glitchy for me. Since the audience was limited to a certain small number of participants – as many of Ferryman’s shows are, for many practical and dramaturgical reasons – there is not currently a need for VR/metaverse theatre companies to consider the perspective of those of us with older or slower technology, but if the form is to expand in the future, with digital tech continuing to rapidly, expensively update and planned obsolescence making life difficult for those of us who cannot afford $2,000 phones, then theatre companies must find a way to build community by providing experiences that are smoother across multiple devices and internet speeds.
Otherwise, it was a fantastic show.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Company: Manhattan Theatre Club / League of Livestreaming Theatre (LOLST)
Platform: League of Live Stream Theater (it looks like they basically use YouTube but some hyper-locked down version of the service)
Time: 90 minutes total including 10-minute audience filtering-in
This is the most expensive digital theatre ticket I have yet purchased – USD$69, making it a much more accessible Broadway ticket but also still very spendy, especially for online performance. That said, the production was created and performed by black women, and it is so rare to be able to ethically spend in late-stage capitalism. Our view of what something ‘costs’ in cyberspace comes from the very early days of the internet which included hacking and piracy – a grand tradition to remember, but also one that requires mental modification if we are to continue online or hybrid digital/live performance. Artists deserve to get paid – it is possible to do this directly, it is possible to show your support by ‘voting with your dollars,’ at least for a few years yet.
The show itself draws from realist and family drama traditions but, as the personal is always political, I am grateful this show was produced, and I was able to access it.
As livestreaming, it was also solidly in the (now post-2020) tradition of hybridity, with a few good quality cameras at various angles, audio of the audience reacting live to the performers, and the occasional internet stutter and minor technical glitch. Which was probably the internet speed on my end, far away in Australia. Overall, very reminiscent of early live broadcast television with the audible audience, good shots of the virtuous performers, and solid stage magic that would be easy to dismiss if it were only a film.
A Note on This Project
Back in March 2023, I was beginning the research phase of my PhD work at Flinders University; an important part of this research involves case studies of online/digital post-pandemic theatre. While I have been a dramaturg for many years, I also wanted to immerse myself in the ‘fandom’ experience of this work – aka, ‘audiencing’ myself – and that required:
1) Keeping myself accountable for watching online shows in an emotive, affective way;
2) Keeping track not only of my ticket stubs or email receipts, but keeping track of my thoughts as close to the show as possible;
3) Holding myself accountable for regular writing and analysis while I conduct other research (writing routines are hard to build but deeply important to academic work);
4) And, building an archive of written engagement that I could analyse later.
So! I’ve done that, mostly. While there are case studies from 2020, 2021, and 2022 that are not part of this Substack experiment, I feel like I’ve created a solid collection that I can comb through.
I may reignite this project later, but for now, I’m turning my attention to analysis of all my research together. Thanks for reading my semi-regular ramblings! And I suppose, watch this space for updates on the thesis project? I can’t say much pre-publication, but I may drop in with something I can’t publish elsewhere.