SIGNA's performance installation Half the Suffering takes up the currently virulent debate on whether empathy is a panacea for society's woes. Inviting visitors to spend a night in a 12-hour empathy workshop, the performance critiques the history of theatre qua empathy machine, while questioning the altruistic impulse to share someone's pain.

At present, we are witnessing a significant transformation of established forms of spectatorship in theatre, performance art and beyond. In particular, immersive and participatory forms of theatre allow audiences and performers to interact in a shared performance space. Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances discusses forms and concepts of contemporary spectatorship and explores various modes of audience participation in theory as well as in practice. The volume also reflects on what new terms and methods must be developed in order to address the theoretical challenges of contemporary immersive performances. Split into three parts, Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances, respectively, focuses on various strategies for mobilising the audience, methodological questions for research on being a spectator in immersive and participatory forms of theatre, and thematising new modes of partaking and ways of spectating in contemporary art. Poignantly capturing experiences that can be viewed as manifestations of affective relationality in the strongest possible sense, this volumewill appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Theatre and Performance Studies, Media Studies and Philosophy.