Reinstalling the Fourth Wall: Digital Performance and Spectatorship in (Post-)Pandemic Era

Theatre can be interpreted as a place where various modes of participation in the community or patterns of citizen behaviour can be rehearsed. In pre-pandemic Lithuanian theatre (as well as theatres of other Baltic countries) various forms of audience engagement were conspicuously emerging, ranging from physical co-creation practices to interactive forms of entertainment. After the global lockdown of theatre institutions the emerging forms of “virtual theatre”, ranging from performance recordings to zoom theatre, redefined the role of theatre spectatorship, in particular the notions of “active”, “passive”, “collective”, “individual”, fundamental for the understanding of the role of publics. Analysing the abundant examples of “pandemic theatre” one starts to think about the return of the digital “fourth wall”, where audiences are becoming distant spectators. This poses important questions to theatre research: whether these forms of theatre are strengthening the feeling of passivity and isolation, serve as platforms for much-needed psychological escapism or offer a critical revaluation of the essential principles of theatre art.

With the help of two case studies, this paper will define and analyse the prevailing practices of pandemic Lithuanian theatre and will outline whether and how the fundamental categories associated with the spectator’s experience of theatre have changed in the post-pandemic era.