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Expressionism and Modernism in the American Theatre: Bodies, Voices, Words (review)

Virtual Theatres operates as a successful introduction to the convergence of performance and digital media by locating itself in a specific cultural moment in theatre, as well as gesturing towards the impulses that are altering the future direction of performance. Giannachi’s analysis of the shifting role of the audience in performances that incorporate new media is strong, as is her study of alterations of stage space in chapter four. Looking at examples of telepresent bodies that converge on various hypersurfaces, she posits a theatrical space that allows actors and spectators to simultaneously inhabit the real space and the representational space, to exist “between locations” (105). Paul Sermon’s piece, Telematic Dreaming (1992), exemplifies this theatrical hypersurface. In her concluding chapter five, Giannachi offers a promising look at the future of these converging media: “Virtual reality is not only a rehearsal space and a theatre, but an archive, a place of memory, a repository for humankind’s past, present and future plans, activities, dreams and failures” (151). Virtual Theatres is thus a significant work which creates a foundation for many more academic studies of digital performance to build upon.