From a close reading of a recent playscript to an analysis of interventions in spectator relations, and from configurations of femininity in Japanese Butoh to the use of ‘play’ in the ceremonies of the Shona people of southern Africa, this latest journal reflects a breadth of contemporary theatre practices as well as a variety of scholarly modes of engagement with them.

This issue of Interventions focuses on the relationship between ‘practice’ and ‘research’, offering four different case studies in which these concepts are configured in quite different ways.

In this cross-disciplinary forum, the research project and interactive performance World Factory, directed by Zoë Svendsen, is discussed from multiple perspectives ranging from social geography to marketing.

Brian Lobel and Hannah Maxwell assess The Sick of the Fringe, a Wellcome Trust-funded programme of talks and events exploring the relationship between medicine and the arts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

In ‘Infecting Archives’, Johanna Linsley talks with Martin O’Brien about his collaboration with Sheree Rose and their work with the Bob Flanagan archive at the ONE Lesbian and Gay Archive.

Following ‘duet residencies’ with Chris Goode and Lucy Cash, performance-maker Karen Christopher reflects on how the artistic residency might remain open to collaboration, surprise, and even mayhem.