Suppose you had never heard of “theatre”, and somebody invited you to see a play. Imagine how strange the experience would be.
All of those people up on stage, saying things that were actually the words of somebody else. You might be appalled at these odd people, walking about in what is clearly a make believe reality, acting as though everything about this made up world is real.
Every once in a while, one of these crazy people would look toward us — the audience — gazing out into the middle distance as though none of us is there. They might do something weird like launch into a lengthy speech, apparently to the empty air. Or even worse, they might express their deepest emotions by singing — without, apparently, ever realizing that they have burst into song.
“Hey!” you might be tempted to shout to the person up on stage, “Can’t you see us? We’re right here!”
But your major worry would be reserved for the audience. All of these apparently intelligent citizens, falling for an obvious trick. Why, you might ask yourself, don’t they realize that those people up there are merely pretending?
Reminds me of Borges’s “Averroes’ Search”: Averroes attempts to translate Aristotle’s poetics without knowing what the words for “comedy” and “tragedy” mean.
To sit in a theatre and watch the play silently is a relatively new thing to do. In former times there was much more “party” in the audience room and the play just some kind of entertainment and much more “interactive”. Our way of watching plays was only established in the late 19th century.
So how many steps backward, do you think we want to go? 😉
Isaac: Yes, good point. That’s pretty much what is going on in Averroes’ Search.
Dagmar: That’s a fascinating into the history of theatre! How strange now to think about that boisterous audience that originally attended “King Lear”.