The Intimate and the Epic in Plunge: A Writer-Director's Approach to Heterarchical Composition

As the 32nd Summer Olympiad from Tokyo filled our television screens in mid-2021, it became the first Olympics in history to lock audiences out of events due to the threat of COVID-19. Some athletes lamented that the lack of crowds impacted their performance, highlighting the vital role of the audience in large-scale spectacle and the performative nature of elite sport.¹ Director Anne Bogart suggests, 'human beings crave spectacle. We long for physical proximity to phenomena larger than ourselves … [to] satisfy something deep seated within us.'² Australia's football codes understood this; having trialled broadcasting with empty stadia early in the pandemic, to protect sports-media profits, they quickly lobbied for special working 'bubbles'³ in restriction-free states. While theatres remained closed across much of the country, this relationship between audience, player and the larger collective experience of spectacle was perceived as being critical for major sporting events.