Narrative as virtual reality 2: revisiting immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media
cancellation. Hadley usefully documents those events, and makes the argument that the controversy about the show should be seen as a kind of performance paratext: the debate, she argues, had a 'dramaturgical structure' (135) that not only affected how Exhibit B was received but which became inseparable from the performance itself. However, she also demonstrates that the quality of the online debate about Exhibit B was often thoughtless and ill informed, sometimes driven by anger and aggression rather than ethical deliberation about both sides of the argument. She doesn't quite describe its cancellation as an act of censorship, but this section offers a (to me) troubling example of how the reception of controversial art works is increasingly affected by viral campaigns that can seem thoughtlessly censorious. It is further worth noting that controversy about the arts has become commoditised: newspaper articles about Exhibit B may have performed a valuable service in exploring a complex debate but they also acted as clickbait, (presumably) generating advertising revenue as angry users flocked to the comments section. The book has many other valuable characteristics. It develops what we might see as an emerging 'canon' of performances that successfully (or at least interestingly) engage with social media. These range from well known examples like Such Tweet Sorrow (the RSC's Twitter based retelling of Romeo and Juliet) to works that deserve a higher profile, such as the National Theatre of Wales' The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning and Adam Cass's I Love You, Bro. And in her final chapter she provides a discussion of how theatres can use social media to engage with audiences an analysis that acts as both a 'how to' guide for professionals and a detailed academic discussion. Given the book's price, it seems important to call attention to the disappointing standard of proof reading. There are repeated words, wrongly placed apostrophes and inappropriate corrections, such as when Axel Bruns' concept of the 'produser' (a social media actor who both creates and consumes information) is changed to 'producer. These, of course, are not the fault of the author. That issue aside, this is as strong a book as one might wish to read on this subject. It works as a practical guide for theatre makers, as a survey of an emerging and rapidly changing field, and as an exceptionally wide ranging and comprehensive analysis of the literature to date. Researchers in media and communications will value its use of theatre to provide a new paradigm for understanding social media, and theatre scholars will find exciting new ideas about participation, immersive performance, and liveness.
International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media