Współobecność wyreżyserowana

For more than half a century now some theatre reformers and directors have been striving to break the notorious „fourth wall” and remedy its effects: the physical and symbolic distance between performers and the audience and the latter’s voyeuristic passivity. But, in view of the rapid development of mass media technology and the experience of digitalised theatre becoming a pandemic necessity, the desired sense of togetherness, liveness and audience active participation have to be reconsidered and redefi ned. However deeply transformed by modern technology, those phenomena, even when limited to the physical space of a traditional theatre performance, are complex and require a closer examination. As I will try to demonstrate in this paper, the sheer corporeality and liveness of theatrical experience do not guarantee the sense of togetherness and involvement on the part of the audience, and they can only be an effect of a careful construction of the physical and symbolic space of the spectacle.