Adam’s research explores decadence and pleasure in performance and visual culture, as well as immersive theatre
My research cuts across two main areas: 'decadence' in performance and visual culture, and immersive theatre.
Most recently I've been working on a project called 'Staging Decadence', which is a platform for exploring and sharing theatre and live art that lends itself to decadence as an embodied and enacted practice. It was made possible thanks to a two-year grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and it's now an ongoing initiative for fostering new collaborations, publications and events. Keep an eye out for new blog posts, interviews, films, workshops and live performance events on the website: www.stagingdecadence.com
I'm also still involved in exploring immersive theatre and immersive experiences more broadly, primarily in supervisory and advisory capacities. It's a topic I've written about fairly extensively, and please reach out if this there's a project you'd like to discuss.
Academic qualifications
PhD Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway 2013
MA International Performance Research, Universities of Warwick and Amsterdam 2010
BA Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick 2008
My current research looks at decadence and pleasure in performance and visual culture, and includes strands exploring twenty-first-century theatre practice, drag, cabaret, burlesque, costume, and a broad range of live art practices in the UK and internationally. I've been grouping relevant activities under the umbrella of the Staging Decadence project. Staging Decadence began its life as a two-year Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship, and continues to offer a platform for producing workshops, films, blog posts, interviews, seminars, and a range of live performance events (previous venues include HERE Arts Centre in New York, and the V&A, Rich Mix, Iklectik Arts Lab, and Queen Mary in London). Recent publications include a monograph titled Staging Decadence: Theatre, Performance, and the Ends of Capitalism (Bloomsbury 2023); a special issue of Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies (https://volupte.gold.ac.uk/) on ‘Decadence and Performance’ (Winter 2021), co-edited with Alex Trott; and a new anthology of Decadent Plays co-edited with Jane Desmarais (Bloomsbury 2024). To find out more about Staging Decadence, visit: www.stagingdecadence.com
I've also been researching or advising on various projects exploring immersive theatre over the past fifteen years. My first book, Beyond Immersive Theatre, was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2016, and came off the back of a number of articles and chapters that you can find below. I also worked collaboratively with Martin Welton between 2014 and 2017 on a related project exploring darkness and obscured vision in theatre and performance, which led to the publication of Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre (Bloomsbury, 2017). I continue to supervise and advise on immersive projects, and welcome any enquiries.
Decadent Plays Arts Council England supported translations for an anthology of Decadent Plays, published with Bloomsbury in 2024, as well as sharings of work in development.
Alston, Adam. 2023. Decadence and the Antitheatrical Prejudice. In: Dustin Friedman and Kristin Mahoney, eds. Nineteenth-Century Literature in Transition: The 1890s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 264-284. ISBN 9781009063852
I am a Creative Associate with the devised, science-led theatre company Curious Directive. All of our projects grow out of close collaborations with a range of specialists including health workers and advisers, neuroscientists and even myrmecologists (who study ants). You can find out more about the company here: https://www.curiousdirective.com/
More recently I've been working as a dramaturg with Studio Will Dutta on a new project called Pleasure Gardens, which is a multimedia work exploring decadence and excess in digital cultures. http://studiowilldutta.art/
I also served as a trustee of the 'recovering theatre company' Fast Familiar (formerly fanSHEN) from 2019 until 2023. Fast Familiar's work is experience-led, and usually incorporates participatory or interactive forms of audience engagement using innovative technologies and experimental dramaturgies. You can find out more about them here: https://fastfamiliar.com/
