The Role of Simulating Digital Threats through Interactive Theater Performances

Amid increasingly sophisticated cyber threats embedded in everyday digital life, the public’s understanding and interest in these dangers remain limited. Existing cybersecurity education pedagogies lack effective, ethics-based reflection, leaving significant blind spots in comprehending both the digital and ethical landscape. This paper explores the potential of interactive theater to constructively simulate digital threats—such as surveillance, phishing, and data breaches—for experiential learning and ethical reflection. Using a qualitative case study research method, data were gathered from documentation, audiences with auto-ethnographical reflection, post-performance surveys, and interviews. The results suggest that politically informed theatrical simulations provide an effective means of translating arcane digital concepts into embodied encounters that resonate emotionally, provoke ethical reflection, and, in some cases, inspire action. Through the lenses of performance theory, simulation theory, and critical digital studies, this study argues that interactive theater is not only a pedagogical mediation but also a critical cultural intervention in the age of surveillance capitalism. The study contributes to both cybersecurity education and performance studies by advancing a hybrid framework for public engagement in the affective and ethical dimensions of digital security.