My friend and colleague Mike Pearson, who has died aged 72, was professor of performance studies at Aberystwyth University and an influential theatre director and author. He was at the forefront of experimental theatre in Britain in the 1970s and 80s, and of the development of site-specific performance – theatre in unexpected locations – as a distinct artistic form.
Mike was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, to Sheila (nee Shaw), a school cook, and James Pearson, who worked for the Potato Marketing Board, and raised in the nearby village of Hibaldstow.
After Brigg grammar school he studied archaeology at University College Cardiff (now Cardiff University), graduating in 1971 and staying on to take an MA in education. During his postgraduate studies he started performing with Transitions Trust community arts project in Cardiff and RAT Theatre, a company influenced by the Polish director Jerzy Grotowski.
In 1973 Mike co-founded Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, directing and performing in numerous productions.
In 1981 he launched Brith Gof theatre company, creating performances in extraordinary venues, including Gododdin (1988) at Cardiff’s disused Rover factory; Pax (1990), at Harland & Wolff’s shipyard, and the Glasgow and Aberystwyth railway stations; and Haearn (1992), at the former British Coal works in Tredegar.
Appointed professor of performance studies at Aberystwyth University in 1999, he continued to practise theatre-making himself as a performer and director.
Mike explored his native North Lincolnshire in Carrlands (2007), Warplands (2011, with John Hardy), and in his autobiographical performance, Bubbling Tom (2000), in Hibaldstow.
His most recent projects were with Mike Brookes for National Theatre Wales: The Persians (2010) at Mynydd Epynt, whose community was evicted in 1940 by the Ministry of Defence; Coriolan/us (2012), at RAF St Athan; and Iliad (2015), at the Ffwrnes, Llanelli.
He wrote several books. Theatre/Archaeology (2001), with Michael Shanks, was about the relationship between performance, memory and place. In Comes I: Performance, Memory, and Landscape (2007) explored his sense of the area where he grew up. Site-Specific Performance (2010) was followed by Marking Time: Performance, Archaeology and the City (2013) and The Mickery Theatre: An Imperfect Archaeology (2014).
Mike retired from Aberystwyth in 2014. The same year he formed Good News from the Future, a physical theatre company in Cardiff for the over 60s. It was indicative of a life lived for and through performance that he kept innovating at every stage.
He is survived by his wife, Heike Roms, whom he married in 1995, and by his brother, Brian.
