Mediatised live : Is the need for liveness dying?

Abstract: When live theatre is broadcast in real time at cinemas around the world, there is a gap in the current terminology. ’Mediatised live’ is a new expression, established in this thesis, to name the media form which has revolutionised the way of experiencing live theatre by broadcasting theatre live to venues around the world. By asking the question ‘Is the need for liveness dying?’ this thesis investigates how mediatised live a ff ects how audiences experience liveness and how the need for liveness is changing. Primarily, this thesis is based on a performance analysis of Sonia Friedman Productions’ Hamlet , played at Barbican Centre, London 2015 and the mediatised live version at Kino, Lund, Sweden. Th is performance analysis will be compared towards an audience survey from another mediatised live performance, Phèdre , in 2009. Th is will be contextualised using theories from scholars who have been examinating an opposition between live and mediatised since the entry of mediatised theatre, such as Philip Auslander and Susan Sontag. Th e need for presence, which is a key element for live, is examined by the words of Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht and Amelia Jones, also scholars interested in performances in di ff erent forms. Finally, this thesis discusses the contradictory results of the performance analysis and the audience survey. Th e performance analysis favours the live but the survey favours the mediatised live. How this is seen in the actual performances of Hamlet is described, and since the need for liveness seems not to be dying but developing, this thesis is closed with a speculation on what the future holds for live theatre