Editorial note: This article was originally published in the Knutepunkt 2025 book Anatomy of Larp Thoughts, a breathing corpus. It has been reprinted from there with the editors’ and authors’ permission. It has not been edited by Nordiclarp.org.
Introduction
Definitions – what is meant by ‘performance’ and ‘audience’
Many artforms have a distinction between ‘performer(s)’ and ‘audience’. The performer(s) enact the artform, and the audience members witness it as an experience. In arts such as theatre, there is (usually) a formal distinction between those people who are giving the performance, and those people who are being part of the audience. Generally, the audience are passive: art may happen within them, and may be affected by their reaction to the performance, but they are not usually actively contributing to it.
In larp, though, there is rarely a performer/audience distinction for the duration of the larp: it is thought of as an artform where these terms are not relevant. In this article, however, we will argue that there are times when we might be closer to performing while larping; and times when we might be closer to an audience role.
We aren’t suggesting that these are permanent states that participants may be in throughout the larp. It may be something that happens briefly during a short scene: the role of performer or audience may be with a given larper only for a short time, and they may be in both roles at different times during the larp.
What has been said about larp, performance, and audience?
Michael Such (2016) sees theatre as a special case of larp, in which performance and audience are present:
“[T]heatre is a larp with a specific set of roles. These are split into those defined as ‘the performers’ and ‘the audience.’ The audience is a role because there are certain things they should not do such as walk on stage or talk. Having an audience role means two big things — that the experience is for the audience and the audience watches the performers.” (Such, 2016)
Other commentators are more forthright about the absence of these roles in larp:
“Live-action role-playing, then, just removes the passive spectator from the equation, so that all participants are performing simultaneously. It is improvisational and not just performed for an audience…” (Emma, 2013)
“In all larps there’s an expectation of a high level of participation and interactivity. Larp ‘customers’ are active players, not audience members.” (Stenros and Sturrock, 2024)
It seems clear that from the larp side and also from the theatre/performing arts side, people draw this distinction of function: larp does not have performers and audience, and that is what makes it different from the other related arts.
But is that true?
Our argument is that during much larp activity there will be times when one or more participants are ‘performing’, and others may be de facto ‘audience’ to them.
Note that we’re not talking here about when one or more characters are performing to characters who are diegetically their audience – for example, playing music, singing, giving a sermon or a speech, performing an in-game play. That situation may happen to fall under our argument, but we have a different canvas.
Rather, we are considering the broad case when a participant carries out an action in the larp with the consideration that other participants will be witnessing them. This may be conscious steering – “I’m about to do a cool thing, I will do it in a place where there are other people who will be able to see it happen” – or more at a subconscious level – “My character seems to be naturally gravitating towards a bunch of other people before doing the next interesting-to-watch thing on their journey” – but either way, during that action, one person is doing something watchable, and other people are watching.
And perhaps, at a later stage, the roles will be reversed: you are watching someone else’s cool action, as a de facto audience to their de facto performance. At most larps, participants will be moving fluidly into and out of these roles during the natural course of play.
We say that this should be considered as a performance/audience dynamic, even if it’s not the same clear-cut and ongoing separation of roles that are present in theatre.
How performance and audience operate in larp
As noted above, we aren’t in this article discussing diegetic performance during larp; nor are we considering ‘larps with an audience’ which are deliberately designed to have observers. When we talk about performance here, we are considering actions or scenes of the larp that are played for the benefit of being viewed by other participants, for a non-diegetic reason. This may be with the aim of conveying something about the character played, or to introduce a dramatic element into a scene: with a level of intentionality. An example might be an argument between two characters, played out in public so as to convey information about their relationship and about the matter under dispute, and to express drama, to other participants who are present. If it had been played out in private, the argument might have taken quite a different form.
Someone being observed during a larp is not necessarily performing: however, someone acting in a way which encourages others to watch and respond may be considered as performing, even if in practice no-one actually is watching. For example, in many larps a death scene in a public place could be considered a performance, if the setting was chosen to draw attention. A death scene that happens to be played out in a public place because of venue layout, or because of the way that the scene evolved, might not be considered a performance, because the protagonist may have had no such intention: they were constrained to play the scene that way. Therefore, we need to consider that there are different levels of ‘performativity’ possible.
Conversely, participants who are currently observing a particular larper with the intention of watching or possibly reacting, but who aren’t playing an active role in the scene or don’t have particular reason to be involved in it, may be considered as an audience. For example, a number of players might be an audience to the public death scene, passively watching it unfold, even when their characters might not have a reason to be particularly interested. If they are interested in it, they might still be considered as an audience, but they are more likely to want to react in some way. Or, the larp design might mandate participants to witness a particular scene, and might import constraints on what they are allowed to do while watching it. So, we also need to consider that there are a range of different levels of audience passivity.
‘Passivity’, here, can also vary considerably. Two participants might be silently and motionlessly watching the same scene playing out, but one is just casually spectating, while the other is deeply emotionally involved and experiencing intense internal play. So, a low level of passivity for the audience doesn’t mean just the power to disrupt the scene or to impose one’s own direction upon it. It is a broad spectrum of agency which can take many different forms.
The two scales
We suggest two scales which a participant can be considered to be on, in different places throughout the run time of a larp.
The performativity scale is about intention or value in being seen while your character is performing a particular action. For example, if someone is deeply immersed in a character who is sweeping a room as a mundane part of their daily life, and would be acting just the same if they were alone, then they would probably be low on the performativity scale. Someone playing a cult leader about to lead the cult in summoning a demon at the climax of a larp centred around a cult summoning a demon will probably be at the higher end.
The passivity scale considers how much agency the participants witnessing the scene have. If the audience has lots of agency to act and interrupt then they will be quite low on the passivity scale. If they are intended to be passive observers then they will be quite high.
There is not a direct correlation between the two scales – it is not always the case that the more performative the action is, the more passive the audience must be. For example, a character performing a mundane part of their daily life may not in practice be very interruptible (eg. if they are performing an act of religious devotion, if they are performing a task of importance to the community, if they are a very high status character). Equally, there may be many participants who wish to interrupt the demon summoning, maybe because their character wants to summon a different demon, or because they want to be cult leader, or for any other reason: so at least some of the other participants in that scene might be quite low on the passivity scale. Also, the audience may be ‘playing to lift’ the performing larper in a more or less passive way.
Performativity vs passivity, diagram by Laura Wood and Mo Holkar
Examples
- Demon summoning – high performativity for the cult leader and anyone else directly involved in the ritual. High passivity for people who are just watching and waiting; lower passivity for people who might be resentfully wishing that they were the cult leader; lowest passivity for people who are going to unexpectedly summon a different demon into the circle.
- Sweeping the room as a mundane daily action – low performativity. Probably low passivity for most other people, as they can readily interrupt it. But maybe higher passivity as discussed above.
- Public execution – high performativity for the monarch, the executioner, and the victim. High passivity for someone casually spectating; still quite high for someone who is seeing it as a demonstration of the power of the king, but doesn’t feel particularly moved one way or another. In the middle, the child of the victim, who has internal play around the execution and is probably also playing externally (deliberately not showing emotions, or acting as if they support the monarch, or supporting family, etc. They can’t stop the action or diegetically leave the scene but they can act within it.) Then at the low-passivity end, the rebel faction who are planning to disrupt the execution and overthrow the king.
- Public conversation between two characters – low performativity if carried out at normal volume. Most likely high passivity, because by default others are not going to involve themselves in it. But some may want to listen in (less passive); and others may want to intervene, or to break it up (low passivity).
Conclusion
We are rarely entirely immersed all the time: and, while steering, we often think about what it is that we are conveying to co-players. We want to be aware of what we are portraying more widely about our character; we want to find a good time and place to interject something dramatic; or, we want to ensure that we don’t leave co-players at the high end of the passivity scale for longer than is interesting.
When we larp, some of the time we are in a performing role, and some of the time in an audience role. And that is ok! It’s the same in real life, after all. We shouldn’t see this as larp falling short of an aesthetic ideal in which such concepts don’t apply. Larp doesn’t have to be ‘better’ than theatre etc in this way.
Acknowledging that some of the time we are watching others, with a greater or lesser degree of passivity – and some of the time we are putting ourselves on show, with a greater or lesser degree of performativity – doesn’t at all detract from larp’s collaborative characteristics, or from its distinction from other forms. And perhaps retaining an awareness of the role of performance and audience in larp, rather than being in denial of it, will help us to make meaningful choices and so to enjoy larp even more.
Bibliography
Emma. “Nordic Larp: What It Is And Why It Matters (Part I)”. Applied Sentience, 12 April 2013. https://appliedsentience.com/2013/04/12/nordic-larp-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters-part-i/ (last accessed, Nov 2024)
Stenros, Jaakko, and Ian Sturrock. “Spotlight on: Larp”. Immersive Experience Network, March 18, 2024 https://immersiveexperience.network/articles/spotlight-on-larp/ (last accessed, Nov 2024)
Such, Michael. “Being in Two Cults: What Can Improv Learn from Larp?” Medium.com, 6 April 2016. https://medium.com/@shadeinshades/being-in-two-cults-what-can-improv-learn-from-larp-b04d1df38b3b (last accessed, Nov 2024)
Cover image: Photo by Kai Simon Fredriksen, from the larp Spoils of War.
