More on Theatrical Duality
The distance between the actor and the fictional character they are playing is addressed by Manfred Pfister in The Theory and Analysis Drama , in which he points out that one of the factors determining the ‘degree of theatrical illusion’ is ‘the style of acting employed - that is, to what extent the behaviour of the fictional figure is rounded off by the actor with realistic details, or, conversely, reduced to characteristic behavioural archetypes’ (23). To the end where the actor and the character merge, or the actor identifying themselves as the fictional character, is naturalist and realist acting, e.g. of the Stanislavsky school. Examples of the other end could be Greek tragedy, baroque opera which feature ‘gestural and mimetic conventions’ (ibid.), and Brecht’s epic theatre, where actors employ ‘gestus’, i.e. showing they are acting. Besides the acting style, Brecht’s characters often present themselves in the third-person perspective. For example, Mother Courage announces: ‘H ere...