Immersive theatre currently enjoys ubiquity, popularity and recognition in theatre journalism and scholarship. However, the politics of immersive theatre aesthetics still lacks a substantial critique. Does immersive theatre model a particular kind of politics, or a particular kind of audience? What’s involved in the production and consumption of immersive theatre aesthetics? Is a productive audience always an empowered audience? And do the terms of an audience’s empowerment stand up to political scrutiny?

Beyond Immersive Theatre contextualises these questions by tracing the evolution of neoliberal politics and the experience economy over the past four decades. Through detailed critical analyses of work by Ray Lee, Lundahl & Seitl, Punchdrunk, shunt, Theatre Delicatessen and Half Cut, Adam Alston argues that there is a tacit politics to immersive theatre aesthetics – a tacit politics that is illuminated by neoliberalism, and that is ripe to be challenged by the evolution and diversification of immersive theatre.

沉浸式戏剧目前在戏剧新闻和学术界享有无处不在、广受欢迎和认可的地位。然而，沉浸式戏剧美学的政治仍缺乏实质性的批判。沉浸式戏剧是否塑造了一种特殊的政治，或者一种特殊的观众？在生产和消费沉浸式戏剧美学的过程中涉及到什么？富有成效的观众是否总是被授权的观众？观众授权的条件是否经得起政治审查？

超越沉浸式戏剧》通过追溯过去四十年来新自由主义政治和体验经济的演变，将这些问题联系起来。通过对Ray Lee、Lundahl & Seitl、Punchdrunk、shunt、Theatre Delicatessen和Half Cut作品的详细批评分析，Adam Alston认为，沉浸式戏剧美学有一种隐性政治--一种被新自由主义照亮的隐性政治，而这种隐性政治在沉浸式戏剧的发展和多样化中已经成熟，可以接受挑战。