Environmental Theatre

Environmental Theatre: 

Environmental Theatre eliminates the distinction between the actors performance space and the audience, environmental theatre places the audience directly into the location of which the play is taking place. In Information for Foreigners the play is intended to take place in a house with the audience breaking off into different groups, which go through each scene or rooms in a different order and then the groups come back together for the final scene. Throughout the play the audience is continuously reminded that they aren't safe and they must watch their step and their pocketbook. 

With the audience being fully submersed into the play, it forces the audience members to feel as if they are going through the experiences with the characters. This helps enforce the themes of the play such as power, and accountability. In one scene the audience witnesses a women given a pistol for her to commit suicide and the audience is simply led to the next room and given a glass of wine as if nothing happened.

The lack of action by authority figures is supposed to make the audience ask themselves if they should speak up, and if anyone going to stop it. While the audience cannot do anything about the violence the guides who hold power in the play also do nothing to stop the violent acts from happening. The lack of action by authority figures is supposed to make the audience ask themselves if they should speak up, and if anyone going to stop it.

Important themes of the play such as power and accountability would not be conveyed the same way if the audience was not up close and personal with the scenes that were being performed in front of them.

Source:

Diana Taylor, author. "Theater and Terrorism: Griselda Gambaro's "Information for Foreigners." Theatre Journal, no. 2, 1990, p. 165. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/3207753.