"Eine Wechseldusche zwischen direkter Begegung und vermittelter": Ein E-Mail-Interview mit Rimini Protokoll über Situation Rooms

Rimini Protokoll's Situation Rooms was first 'played out' on 23 August 2013 at the Turbinenhalle in Bochum. This "Multiplayer Video-Piece" is a remarkable experiment in participatory theatre, which combines elements of installation, "expert"-theatre, parcours and re-enactment. The following text provides a brief description of Situation Rooms, followed by an e-mail interview with Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel. This interview addresses questions and topics such as: the hybrid genre of Situation Rooms, its relation to earlier works, specific compositional decisions (about duration, the use of iPads, absent "experts"), and the piece's approach to interaction with the audience (including potential cognitive overload and denial of space for individual assessments, immersion, incompleteness as a principle), and aspects of audience feedback. The interview also considers the role of empathy, audiences' emotional involvement, the work's (apparent) proximity to practices of traditional theatre, and participation as an aspect of theatre and politics.