Inter-acting with the Past - the use of participatory theatre at museums and heritage sites

Abstract

Given the increasing use made of interactive theatre at heritage sites and museums, this article sets out to investigate some of the ways in which both overt and 'borderline' forms of theatre at heritage sites may enhance the education of casual visitor and schoolchildren alike. Two very different types of 'living history' project are examined-the replica Puritan-settler village, Plimoth Plantation, in Massachusetts and the work of the Young National Trust Theatre in the UK. The educational claims made by projects such as these demand careful attention to the structuring of the visitor's/ pupil's experience, and to this end certain key features of each of the two programmes are considered, specifically: the use of the site as stage set; characterisation (including first-person interpretation); narrative; the mixing of fact and invention; and the differing types of interaction between visitor and performer/interpreter. It is argued that the deployment of widely differing theatre techniques can make distinct contributions to the ways in which we think about the past, but that it has at the same time become vital to develop criteria by which the educationally and theatrically valid work might be distinguished from mere 'heritage industry entertainment'.