ABSTRACT
Drama is the most collaborative of literary forms. But a sharp distinction needs to be drawn between collaboration and participation. All art keeps a certain distance, and the fact that we are drawn into drama so intensely makes the preservation of that distance more, not less important. ‘Audience participation’, ‘total theatre’ or any similar formula implies an abolition of that distance, which is destructive of drama. Certainly the origins of drama were in ritual, which implies participation, but it was not until the play and the audience were completely separated that drama emerged. (Football originated in ritual, too, but spectators who wish to participate are quickly removed from the field of play.) Paradoxically, to enter into the world and action of a play we must remain outside it, and any invitation to ‘join in’ destroys the integrity of the world and the action. This remains true whatever the shape of the stage, and however the audience is arranged before it or around it. ‘Total theatre’ may be interesting, exciting, or even therapeutic; it may fulfil a genuine social need; but it is not drama.
