Theatre/Spectacle

[Mark Fisher]

>On Thu, 8 Feb 1996, Mark Fisher wrote:
>> ....When I suggested the active/passive distinction I was adapting
>> my own pet theory about the difference between film and theatre. If in
>> general I prefer theatre to film, it's because I prefer to feel like I'm
>> part of the event rather than a passive recipient of it.
>
 
Bruce Barton wrote:
>This seems a rather shaky basis to build any discussion of 'theatre' vs.
>'spectacle' on (if, indeed, a firmer one exists).  Few contemporary
>theories of film production and reception perceive cinema spectatorship as
>"passive".  Barbara Klinger's discussion of the complex "inter-textuality" of
>the cinematic event (and the powerfully productive "digressions" discovered in
>the myriad collaborative and contradictory extra-filmic narratives that
>surround and interpolate, in particular, American film, ranging from the
>Academy Awards through the National Enquirer) is just a single argument
>amongst many that describe watching a film as highly interactive.  As Mark
>concedes, 'engagement' is a particularly elusive idea, and establishing
>polarities (theatre/film, active/passive, theatre/spectacle) does not seem
>to me the most effective way to deal with its inherent ambiguity (read:
>possibilities).
 
But clearly film and theatre are not the same thing. I think it's something
to do with audience - the film is the same whether it's watched by one
person or 1000; theatre (including spectacle), being live, is affected by
the size, mood and quality of the spectators. It's also to do with the
required extent of your suspension of disbelief. A film will show an image
of Niagara Falls and you don't need to work too hard to believe it is
Niagara Falls; a stage play will show someone pouring a glass of water from
the top of a ladder and ask you to believe it is Niagara Falls. You might
not be inert in the first example, but you are much more active (engaged?)
in the second.
 
I do now accept, though, that this a shaky basis on which to discuss
theatre versus spectacle.
 
Mark Fisher (fisher at easynet.co,uk)