Divided in two parts the book discusses important aspects of theatrical event: time, acting, perception vs. presentation, context and understanding, the theatre performance as an event. The first part, a five chapter introduction, offers different theoretical perspectives and models regarding theatre in general and especially theatre as live performance. The second part, comprising ten chapters, constitutes applied research of the theoretical models and concepts already introduced, and a number of topics: regarding contemporary, recent history or historical theatre performances in relation to acting and audience perception.
The collection of studies is important because it offers at least two important instruments for understanding theatre. The first instrument is a model of theatrical communication in a conventional-structural-conceptual-cultural-life context. This model is applicable to numerous theater and theatrical contexts.
The second instrument of understanding is concerning theatre as an event. This is not done in an attempt to define theater but in a dialectical approach to the problem of theatre. During a theatrical performance there are three levels o communication: symbolic, artistic and sensory. One essential factor of this equation is time: the actor and the performer carry on their operations of presentation and perception simultaneously and in a co-dependent relationship.
Chapter three - ``Reacting to actions. Concepts of theatricality``- is off particular importance for it introduces the concept of theatricality as ``a tool to analyze and understand events of performative nature``. This chapter looks into the communicative intersection between the performer’s actions and the spectator’s reactions, discovering aspects related to the theatrical process on the way. Theatricality is thus introduced here as an analysis element in the communicative process between the performer’s exhibitory, encoded and embodied actions and the emotional and intellectual reactions of the spectator. Besides other various definitions and ways theatricality is and can be understood as a concept in terms of understanding the expressive means employed in theatre we are also introduced to a theatricality scale one that ranges between extratheatrical and intratheatrical.
When talking about model and theories it is very important to mention that all the information comprised in these studies is delivered in an accessible academic tone and language. (There are plenty of cryptic books regarding theatre models or theories all parading language in a rather perplexing and complicated manner.) This book has certain honesty in the way it is written and developed as a work instrument, showing that for these models of understanding the dynamics of performance and perception, all things are interconnected with reality it is all not just an artificial theoretical construct. Even a baptismal is used to make a point and presented with a picture of it we are on our way to understanding more about theater than we would talking exclusively about the history of the performance in the 20th century.
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