ABSTRACT
‘Who’s there?’ Herbert Blau has already established this opening question, uttered by Barnardo as the first words of Hamlet, as perhaps the key question for any study of the theatrical audience. As Blau himself observes, the study of the audience is beset with difficulties regarding the presence of its object. The problem often seems to be that there’s no one there. Or that no one who attempts to respond to Barnardo ever turns out to have the right credentials, whether they offer themselves as sociological data or personal confession. These difficulties are particularly acute in the context of the widely held conviction, especially among those of us who practice ‘spectator studies’ (of which more in a moment), that it is the audience or spectator who produces meaning in and around the theatrical event. Blau writes:
We can speak as we wish of the audience’s producing meaning, as if that were somehow a solution to the complexities of power, but we are still left with the problem of evaluating the meaning which is produced and equilibrating it with the balance of power. While this is difficult enough with the individual spectator (or reader), what are we really to make of the continuing sentiments about collectivity that are, more than with other forms, still encouraged by the folk-lore and institutions of theatre?
(Blau 1990: 280)