Abstract
Focusing on the analysis of functions and aesthetic values of theatrical video projections employed in the role, the trade, and the magnetism of an actor on stage, I examine Denis Marleau's staging of Maurice Maeterlinck's Les Aveugles as a celebration of fantasmagorie technologique: a phenomenon of a video projection (the object) taking the place of an actor (the subject), functioning as the embodiment of a dramatic character in a performance. I theorize the mechanisms of transformation, personification, and dominance that determine what transpires between a video projection, a dramatic character, and a virtual actor on stage. By privileging an object over an actor, I contend that theatre destroys both the semantics of the acting event and the fundamental principles of theatrical communication. By mixing the codes of visual and audio narrative, and by shifting the dominance of theatrical communication and thus changing the paradigm of the spectators' contribution to the creative act of a theatrical happening, Marleau's fantasmagorie technologique creates a new performative genre.
About the author
Her research interests include theory of drama and performance, theatre semiotics, theatre and exile, and Russian drama and theatre. Her recent publications include ‘Interpreting diaspora: From accented character to accented audience’ (2005); ‘Aesthetics of utopian performance: Michael Chekhov on sound, sign, and international theatre language’ (2005); ‘Every home is its own private Moscow: Between geopathology and nostalgia in Olga Mukhina's Ю/You’ (2005); and A Path of the Character: Michael Chekhov's Inspired Acting and Theatre Semiotics (2005).
© Walter de Gruyter
