The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia
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A main immersive theatre written source that we used during our research was The Punchdrunk Encyclopaedia which is a book by Punchdrunk about their work styled as an Encyclopaedia. Whilst a vital point of reference on the first eighteen years of Punchdrunk it is also an immersive piece within itself.
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By reading this immersive book we not only expanding our knowledge of the workings of one of the world’s most successful immersive theatre companies but we went on an immersive experience. Here we witnessed how Punchdrunk’s personal immersive practice was being implemented onto a non-theatre media and how that could potentially work.
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It was important when using this book as a reference and source to remember that it was specific to Punchdrunk's practice and that aspects of this would not be applicable to other immersive companies’ work.
The book is also limited in its criticism of Punchdrunk’s work and practice due to it being commissioned by them so it was important to think critically about some of the opinions expressed within it.
Despite being arranged alphabetically it maps Punchdrunk’s journey weaving interviews, analysis of their works and their techniques with memories and dreamlike written images as a beautiful fractured chronology of the company’s history.
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Like a Punchdrunk show you can dip in anywhere within the encyclopaedic structure and look up a topic and construct and re-define the narrative for yourself. Each entry has a “see also” list attached so that even if you were to read it from A to Z you can choose to move fluidly through the writing much like the largescale worlds created by Punchdrunk.
