Modal Transpositions toward Theatres of Encounter, or, in Praise of “Media Intermultimodality”

Abstract

In many contemporary theatre productions, a mixing of modes of performance, presentation, and participation is observed. In this scenario, change and adaptation occur within specific media precisely through their interrelation with other media. Lars Elleström describes intermediality as “intermodal relations in media,” or “media intermultimodality.” This essay explores Elleström’s account of modes and modalities in order to address the adaptation of media form and function in contemporary theatre and performance. It proposes that the notion of modal transposition across media helps to account for both the technical efficacy and aesthetic affordances of contemporary intermedial performance, particularly in “reality trend” work that aims to provide lived and felt encounters and draws on actual lives and experiences. By way of example, the essay examines Before I Sleep (dreamthinkspeak), Hotel Medea (Zecora Ura Theatre), The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk), Situation Rooms (Rimini Protokoll), and The Pixelated Revolution (Rabih Mroué). Taken together, these productions suggest that modal transposition serves a characteristic agenda: the provision of encounters with actuality, where both artwork and experience are pluralized, segmented, and synthesized.