The games we play together: towards a dramaturgy of playable performance

Whitney, J. (2025) The games we play together: towards a dramaturgy of playable performance. PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00123847

Abstract/Summary

Play is essential for social connection. Playable performances are one outlet for adults to explore their desire to play. In the last decade, the UK has seen an increase in ‘playable performances’ and alongside this, in related scholarship. Playable performances are pieces of interactive or immersive performance that use game or play mechanics as the core of their dramaturgical structure. I suggest that playable dramaturgies are constructed out of the foundational elements of invitation, agency, and interaction. These help to build the playful, social, and narrative worlds of different forms of playable performance. This thesis explores these concepts through a practice led methodology, using my own portfolio of practice of three different approaches to playable dramaturgy that I created. These performances explored the ways in which I invite audience players into play experiences, how they can have the appearance of choice within dramaturgical structure and the ways in which I explicitly design the interactions available in my work, to enable audience players access to different aspects of play experience. In interpreting and defining playable dramaturgies, I draw from literature within game, play and performance studies. I also analyse performances by other correlating practitioners whose work I consider playable. This thesis contextualises the growth of playable practices in the last decade and situates it within immersive theatre discourses, to define what playable dramaturgy is. Part One of the thesis, which is comprised of a thesis introduction and two chapters, addressing the different elements of playable dramaturgy. This contains both critical reflection on my exploratory practices, and a close analysis of key selected practitioners including Fast Familiar, Seth Kriebel and Ontroerend Goed. This is followed by a brief introduction to my central doctoral practice, namely, the online playable performance Beyond The Stars, alongside its key underpinning of the creative and contextual decisions, with specific critical reference to the work of Metis Arts. In Part Two of the thesis, which is comprised of two chapters and a conclusion, I suggest that alongside their reliance on a playful structure, playable dramaturgies develop a certain social and narrative dynamic, one that is vital to this structure’s operation. With reference to Beyond The Stars, I argue that performance is not simply a set of dramaturgical decisions, but a much more nuanced process of understanding and offering choices that allow us to exist together, participate in worlds beyond our own and most importantly, to play together with others.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/123847
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00123847
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Film, Theatre & Television
Date on Title Page	February 2024
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