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posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 03:13pm on 14/05/2008
In many cases the wall is necessary to prevent (or discourage) inappropriate interaction between audience and performers.

In others, such as stand-up comedy, the wall is much more porous and allows for heckling. Could someone stand on stage and say "The fourth wall - now you see it, now you don't - now you see it, now you don't" and switch it on and off just with their body language?

When it's there, it aids suspension of disbelief; it is a retaining wall that holds the conventions of theatre in.
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lnr: Halloween 2023 (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] lnr at 03:36pm on 14/05/2008
I'm not sure the wall is there in the same way at all in standup. The comic is interacting directly with the audience, rather than with other members of the cast or with the scene, or just within his own material. And often the heckling goes both ways.
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posted by [identity profile] techiebabe.livejournal.com at 06:21pm on 14/05/2008
Agreed. And even when we saw Little Britain Live, which was essentially a sequence of scenes played out as if on TV, we were just waiting for something to break and for them to corpse, or fluff - because that was part of the fun.

It was inevitable that when Roy called "Margaret..." there would be an unspoken competition between the audience and the stage to see who would call out "Yes?" and how long each side would hold out. But that added to the fun, although in the other scenes we were passive observers again.

Surely with comedy, not just stand-up, part of it also is seeing how people react, yet this doesn't mean that the fourth wall is broken as we are only observing our fellow audience members.

Have I over-analysed this? ;-)
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posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 12:15am on 15/05/2008
> Have I over-analysed this? ;-)

Only just beginning :-)

And your Little Britain example reminds me of Rocky Horror and the many ways it interacts with the audience. The original stage production in an intimate venue, the actors so close you could smell their sweat; the safely sanitised film version the same every time, but with the Criminologist talking - to us? to some unseen audience? filming his evidence alone to send out to the world?. And then the film audience participation, and the revived stage show.
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