Hunting for pearls in the shallow water: designing and building spatial immateriality in the aquatic theatre La Perle

Abstract

This essay discusses the working process behind Franco Dragone’s aquatic theatre La Perle (2017) in Dubai. The aim of the case study is to provide unique insight into the development and implementation of an innovative architecture typology of a theatre building conceived as a ‘living thing’, a spatial system able to adapt and change according to the demands of dramaturgy. Remembering imaginative, but never built, proposals for theatre buildings from the beginning of the twentieth century, and their objectives regarding more flexibility of a performance space, the study explains what it takes to actually realise a ‘fluid’ spatial system. At the same time, it is an attempt to broaden the understanding of scenography by discussing it in relation to its materiality, technical requirements, and the virtual content employed in the La Perle show. Using the lens of posthumanism, the analysis includes discussion on the culture/nature divide in the realm of contemporary spectacle, concentrating on Karen Barad’s notion of non-human matter and its role within an aquatic theatre, adaptable and ever-changing. It explains an approach to treating space as a scenographic body, and the contribution of architectural design proceedings to the conception and production of new kinds of theatres.