Building Fiction: Exit Through Looking-Glass

Architectural performance frames the human experience within and outlines each moment as a private story that can be retold verbally, pictorially and spatially. The delineation of a performance space is defined by both actors’ portrayals and the audience’s perception of the event. There exists an interplay between the performance and the structure, leading to the multi-sensory understanding of an architectural narrative.This thesis looks to reinvigorate the Imperial Theatre (otherwise known as Barrymore’s Music Hall, Ottawa) through a whimsical interpretation, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s novel: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. A nonsensical narrative is created to lead both the actors and the audience on a journey through space and scale. By focusing on the concepts of immersive theatre, this thesis will stage the unexpected as a series of abstract experiences.