This thesis explores immersive theatres' affect on the audience through performances enacted largely on and through the senses. A combination of practical and written exploration is utilised to examine the affective power of immersive theatre performances. This is in view of assessing how immersive theatres might impact upon personal well-being. Furthermore, this
thesis proposes their extended use in applied settings for particular groups of people who may benefit from their therapeutic potential.
The name ' immersive theatres ' has come to suggest a complex array of performances that explore, play and experiment with the relationship between audience, performer and performance, challenging the concept of a singular interpretation or experience of the work.
In particular, this thesis focusses on visceral forms of immersion which can be considered therapeutic, with emphasis on the audience's role and response to the performance. Practice from the North Wales area forms the context for the research, in particular, theatre practitioner Iwan Brioc's Sensory Labyrinth Theatre work with companies Theatr Cynefin and The Republic of the Imagination now continued locally by Theatr Dan y Coed. Further companies and performers with similar practice are referred to in order to recognise the
geographical breadth of similar practices including Adrian Howells, Teatro de los Sentidos and Ontroerend Goed's The Smile off Your Face (first performed 2003).
The use of practice and audience research provides an innovative examination of
audience responses to an immersive perfonnance. Two original performances were created - The College on the Hill (2011) and When Autumn Passed Me By (2014)- to explore the relationship between immersion and the therapeutic. Audience responses were collected using qualitative methods in order to understand how the experience had affected them. The first perfonnance also incorporated a well-being measurement tool with the intention of testing the
application of the tool to this setting and whether a change in well-being could be determined.
The findings suggest that both performances positively impacted upon the majority of the audience. Use of the well-being tool in the first performance implied a positive enhancement of personal subjective well-being when comparing scores taken immediately before and after the perfonnance. This was supported by the qualitative responses from the audience. The data also highlighted the way the audience's sense of risk can intervene with
their reception of the work.
This work offers a provocation for future practice in extending the use of multimethods research to further understand immersive theatres and audience experiences.