© Mark David Hooper 2008-Present. This presentation was written and given by Mark David Hooper at the University of Exeter. This material should NOT be reproduced under any circumstance and I accept no responsibility for people that try to pass this off as their own work.
•Erik Exe Christoffersen states that the term Para-Theatre was first coined by Grotowski and is used to describe a situation in which the ‘boundary between the actor and the spectator is no longer present’ (1993: 17).
•The events that occur within restaurant spaces are a series of very specific actions which bring the participants into a non-daily form of fellowship and rhythm; participants are all executing similar actions in the same place at the same time.
•Consider that our restaurant has windows that enable people to look into the restaurant.
•One is now observing a Para-Theatrical event, watching people eat, talk, serve etc; people are playing roles.
•The person “playing” the waiter for example waits on the customers; taking their orders etc. Whilst the customers fulfill their role by talking, eating and drinking.
•An order of “play” is established through an unspoken cultural understanding of the activity they are a part of.
•If one chooses to stop observing and to walk in the door then one becomes part of the para-theatrical event and is expected to conform to the ‘rules’ of play, adopting the role of a customer.
•A restaurant could be said to have a script that governs the interaction that takes place between the establishment (the waiter/cashier) and the customer.
•“Would you like fries with that” is a phrase that we have come to expect when we are being served at the till of a fast-food restaurant.
•The words do not necessarily have meaning for the cashier
•It becomes almost a habit whereby the establishment has told them that this phrase must be communicated to the customer to elicit a response and so they include it in the interaction.
•Perhaps to symbolise the caring nature the restaurant has for its customer.
•Much like a play or piece of theatre, a script is used to communicate effectively with the audience (customer)
•Essentially the building is just an empty space until we fill it with objects
•These objects transform the space into a pub, café or in this case a restaurant.
•The liminal space is transformed into a restaurant with places for people to sit, chefs to cook and waiters to move around and so a place for para-theatre to take place.
•The structure of the meal (like a program)
•The code of conduct. If the restaurant is considered ‘posh’ then one dresses up in formal wear and conversation is kept to polite or intellectual conversation instead of subjects that may cause offence to the other people in the restaurant that are engaged in the act. – Conversations acceptable in McDonalds are not necessarily acceptable in the Ritz for example, we perform to satisfy what we think is being asked of us culturally.
•One performs for the benefit of others
•How one uses the cutlery – The ‘Correct’ way of holding the utensils; it would be frowned upon if you used you hands to tear apart the delicious gourmet steak in front of you.
•A restaurant could be considered para-theatrical as:
•It has a clear playing order
•People play roles
•There are people observing whether it is one customer looking at the other or people walking by outside
•All the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players
– (Shakespeare, As You Like It)
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