What is a Theatrical Performance?

Extract

i . introduction

My aim here is to present a theory of theatrical performance. On my view, a theatrical performance is a particular kind of interaction between performers and observers (actors and audience members) in a shared physical space. A necessary component of this interaction is that the performers pretend that the interaction is something other than what it actually is and that the observers are aware of this pretense. I will proceed by critiquing the dominant view of theatrical performance, namely, that it is primarily an interpretation of a literary work. I will then distinguish theatrical performance from other, similar, art forms, such as film and television. This will allow me to locate the necessary and sufficient conditions of theatrical performance.

Just as Plato famously banished poets from the just city, so Aristotle banished performance from any serious consideration of tragedy. In discussing his six parts of tragedy, Aristotle has this to say about “Spectacle”—the element of tragedy that involves the acting out of the other five parts: “The Spectacle, though an attraction, is the least artistic of all the parts, and has the least to do with the art of poetry. The tragic effect is quite possible without a public performance and actors; and besides, the getting up of the Spectacle is more a matter for the costumier than the poet.”¹ Aristotle's easy dismissal of the performative aspects of tragedy is part of a long tradition that sees theatrical performance as a kind of supplement to the written play.² On this view, to perform a play is to form an idea about the meaning of that play and then express this idea on stage. Or, to put the point another way, a theatrical performance is simply an interpretation of a play. Let us call this view the literary theory of theatrical performance.