Rereading the Narrative Paradox for Virtual Reality Theatre

Abstract

We examined several key issues around audience autonomy in VR theatre. Informed by a literature review and a qualitative user study (grounded theory), we developed a conceptual model that enables a quantifiable evaluation of audience experience in VR theatre. A second user study inspired by the ‘narrative paradox’, investigates the relationship between spatial exploration and narrative comprehension in two VR performances. Our results show that although navigation distracted the participants from following the full story, they were more engaged, attached and had a better overall experience as a result of their freedom to move and interact.