ABSTRACT
The time has come for the Large Other we excluded, in order to create the performance, to be admitted into it via the gaze, now that we consider it ready to be seen. There will be a primitivism about what the Other sees. The performers ‘grant an audience’ as do Kings or Queens. The audience is ushered in, tamed by the atmosphere of the performance space. One of the signs of weak theatre is that it is too willing to accommodate its audience – to acknowledge it – and thus for its performers to become ‘just like their audience’. A compère may invite a member of the audience onto the stage – pretending that any member of the audience is ‘just like him’, and as good as any performer. Usually the contrast between audience-member and performer causes the opposite effect – the volunteer seeming inept – a laughing-stock for the rest of the audience.
