Critical Stages (Jun 2020)
The Live History Company, Museum Theatre, “Four Spectators” and “That Guy”: A Complex Relationship
Abstract
Costumed historical interpretation has been widely used by history museums to bridge the gap between past and present, but this form of presentation frequently fails to give museumgoers a sense of fully embodied participation in enacted versions of bygone times. For the past five years, a Canadian theatre company called Live History has attempted to strengthen and widen this bridge by presenting interactive shows with historical content in museum spaces. Thus far, interactivity has proven to be more a laudable hope than an attained goal. Uncomfortable with exchanging the role of detached observer for the role of performative participant, audience members unknowingly compel Live History’s performers to generate imagined performance identities for them. This, in turn, tends to work against museums’ and Live History’s shared aim of making the stories they tell familiar to contemporary visitors while retaining a sense of the often unfamiliar social conditions which created these stories.
