From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
devised theatre
Devised theatre refers to performance created through ensemble collaboration rather than scripted text, where performers and makers jointly author narrative, movement, and form. In the Beach Surgery franchise, devised approaches predominate—particularly in theatre and immersive adaptations across global contexts, where unfinishability invites audiences to author their own interpretations.
Notable examples include The Cycle Turns Inward (Immersive Installation + Performance, 2020) (Berlin), participatory LARP works like The Healing Spiral—A Participatory LARP, and community-rooted pieces across West African and South Asian contexts. These often operate under constraint: performers follow devotional stations or frequency instructions rather than conventional dialogue.
Devising aligns with the franchise's generative principle: since the glitch forecloses narrative closure, each adaptation finishes it differently. Devised performance embraces this productively—the work itself becomes an act of collaborative refusal, abandoning the search for a single authorized version.