Visualising Theatre Historiography: Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog (1984 and 2011) in the Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET)

This essay considers the opportunities afforded by the Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) for exploring the functions of and relationships between historical theatrical texts and other records of performance. Over the course of SET's development, the system's digital environment for visualizing theatrical text and performance has increasingly emphasized affordances that are not available in other digital or material environments. Our most recent focus has been on SET's potential applications for theatre historians, in particular because of the system's user-controlled, hybrid two- and three-dimensional interface, which permits the simultaneous visualization of a variety of research materials and performance simulations. Through a research project exploring the theatre-historical significance of Soulpepper Theatre's 2011 production of Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog in relation to the Tarragon Theatre's 1984 premiere of the play, we have identified some current strengths of SET as a tool for theatre-historical research, as well as some technical improvements that would enhance its efficacy, and some design challenges warranting further consideration. With some refinements, SET has the potential to add to the affordances offered by existing digital tools through its ability to visualize theatre-historical methodologies and its positioning of the user as the agent of research, making it an environment for historiographical as well as historical scholarship. Cet essai examine les possibilites offertes par le Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) pour l’exploration des fonctions des textes historiques de theâtre ou d’autres archives de representations, ainsi que des relations qu’ils entretiennent. Durant le developpement de SET, l’environnement numerique de visualisation de representations et de textes theâtraux a progressivement souligne les possibilites absentes d’autres medias numeriques ou environnements materiels. Notre reflexion la plus recente est centree sur les applications potentielles de SET pour les historiens du theâtre, en particulier par son interface hybride en deux et trois dimensions controlee par l’utilisateur, qui permet la visualisation simultanee de materiaux de recherche varies et la simulation de representations theâtrales. A travers un projet de recherche explorant l’importance dans l’histoire du theâtre de la production de la piece White Biting Dog de Judith Thompson par le Soulpepper Theatre en 2011 en comparaison avec la premiere production de la piece en 1984 par le Tarragon Theatre, nous avons identifie quelques atouts de SET comme outil de recherche en histoire du theâtre ainsi que quelques ameliorations techniques qui pourraient parfaire son efficacite et quelques aspects de design appelant des reflexions complementaires. En le raffinant, SET a le potentiel d’enrichir les possibilites offertes par les outils numeriques existants, a la fois par sa capacite a visualiser les methodologies d’histoire du theâtre et en positionnant l’utilisateur comme acteur de la recherche, pour en faire un environnement pour la recherche tant en histoire qu’en historiographie.