The Copenhagen Interpretation
This process is designed to be theatre which centres and prioritises access. It is continuously developing and will always be imperfect.
Opening space for everyone
The Copenhagen Interpretation is a system created by Jenifer Toksvig, designed to be more broadly accessible than traditional theatre with more flexible and diverse opportunities to get involved. The core aim is to create transformative story-world experiences that foster connection, creativity, and personal growth. Grounded in principles of accessibility, inclusivity, and community, it seeks to connect individuals with themselves, each other, and the broader narrative of our world. Our guiding values are to provide comfortable and supportive environments, promote understanding and empathy, and inspire positive social change through story and theatre. This is a process of community-empowered live performance (a bit like 'playable theatre') presented across analogue, digital, and live performance platforms. And some little tiny games here and there. It's designed to be particularly accessible for neurodiverse audiences, with a focus on autism and ADHD. We are continuously developing it, and discovering more about where it works, and why it always will, and should be, responsive and imperfect.Quantum Physics
The Copenhagen Interpretation is actually a collection of views about quantum mechanics, contested by many including those who came up with it. In essence, the theory is this: under normal circumstances, a quantum particle exists in all of its possible forms simultaneously. If it's observed by someone, it is forced to choose one state of being to present to the observer. On a different day, that same observer might see it differently, not least because the observer is now different. Theatre is the same: if you see a play on a day when you are happy, and then see the same play on a day when you are unhappy, your experience of the play will differ. The rules of 'fourth wall' theatre seek to suppress this. The play is presented in exactly the same way on both days, and we are still and silent observers in the darkness of the auditorium. Nonetheless, our experience differs. The performers might use the same words and moves, but they also differ from day to day, so their performance differs, which also affects our experience. The traditional architecture of both theatre buildings and theatre performances are not really responsive to this. As a method of engaging with live performance, The Copenhagen Interpretation is designed not only to respond to this, but to embrace and be powered by it. In effect, it is theatre with no audience: we are all participants who build a world of stories for, and with, each other. Even if you are just sitting quietly and watching, you are bearing witness to the stories, which is a crucial part of the process: every story needs to be heard, and remembered, and recalled afterwards. Although we provide a simple structure for a fictional world with a central narrative, it is a world that can hold many stories, and the core story is designed to give people something to which to bind their own stories. It's rather like weaving a piece of broadcloth on a loom: the pattern we end up with will depend on the colours people choose to weave over and under the existing warp threads.Origins
Here is a quote from Jenifer Toksvig about how storytelling is woven into this process.I created 'Copenhagen' because I wanted to explore those moments in life when there’s a choice, and I am looking around for cues from the people I’m with as to what choice I should make because I am autistic and have ADHD, and associated anxieties, and I feel like I have no clue how to 'human' most of the time. The Broad Cloth, and other such projects, are actually about exploring one specific moment, and all the possible choices in that moment that different people might make. It is about exploring "The Copenhagen Interpretation" of that single moment, of that dilemma. No single moment happens in a vacuum, and we need those different views in the moment. So we build a world, and inhabit it, in order to seed and nurture the characters whose different experiences will lead them to respond differently to that one ultimate moment. As we go along, we examine things and discuss them, make observations, support each other so we can take risks where we feel comfortable to do so. In essence, I am building myself a lab within which to safely experiment with existing and interacting as a human being, again and again and again. And it's a lot nicer, and more effective, to do that in the kind company of likeminded explorers.
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