The Sanskrit term “rasa” has been variously translated as juice, flavor, extract, and essence. In the context of performance theory it is the “aesthetic flavor or sentiment” tasted in and through performance. The Natyasastra, the Sanskrit aesthetic treatise attributed to Bharata, notes that when foods and spices are mixed together in different ways they create different tastes; similarly, the mixing of different basic emotions arising from different situations, when expressed through the performer—or, in the case of immersive and interactive theatre, through the smell of garlic, the taste of wine, the roughness of a blanket, or the gentle touch of a hand—gives rise to an emotional experience or “taste” in the spectator, which is rasa.
1 comment:
Mee takes an ingenious look at framing immersive and interactive performances through the lens of ancient Sanskrit drama principles...Of course, one of the core principles of immersive theatre in the experimental sphere is to break down Western theatrical conventions, so why not look to a non-Western model of theatre to define it? Brilliant move.
I'm most intrigued by the statement that "losing one's objectivity is in fact the point. Immersive and interactive theatre reveals the falseness in the very idea of objectivity (which is always already subjective, and revels in partial perceptions." A play would have to be awfully simple, wouldn't it, for an audience to truly access every perspective and nuance in a story. The objective view presented in Aristotelean theatre is even less objective than we'd like to admit, in that it tells us a story through the eyes of a protagonist. Even in an ensemble piece, we can never have a truly objective view when we don't know the nuances in a character's backstory, the thoughts going through an actor's brain that night that make them behave the way they do.
At the same time, my biggest frustration with immersive theatre is being unable to decipher the whole story. I always feel like I don't have enough puzzle pieces to fit together because I can only follow one character's story line at a time, and I miss so many other important details.
But then again, maybe that's Mee's point, that it's not about seeing the "whole story" but the story you choose, and to enjoy the meaning in that.
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