In his often cited comparison between a spectator’s experience of theatre
and film, Christian Metz identifies the concurrence of production and reception
in theatre as its fundamental determinant. This paper considers alternative
‘economies’ and approaches to the relationship between performance and
representation in which these traditionally opposed forms of experience
“…enter into new relations wherein their usual distinctness … admits an
unprecedented configuration, leaving room at once for straddling, alternating
balance, partial overlapping, recalibration, and ongoing circulation… (Metz,
1976). While this quotation, also from Metz, refers in the original to
the relationship between “the impression of reality, the impression of
the dream, and the impression of the daydream,” its tolerance for exchange
and interaction provides a fruitful model for the consideration of similarly
unconventional integrations and conceptualizations of live performance
and recorded/mediated expression. Through a discussion of several Canadian
multimedia theatre productions, this paper draws upon these and other perspectives
to explore the creative and analytical potential in the transgression of
ontological boundaries.
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