Drowsing in Theatre Performances

In contemporary newspaper articles and psychological guidebooks, it is often pessimistically stated that Western societies are facing a great loss: the general assumption is that a specific form of attention that has been cultivated and idealized over the course of several centuries will soon disappear, namely focused, intense concentration.1 Over the last few years, the number of publications that detail the training of focus and concentration has been rapidly increasing. The louder the lamentation about the alleged loss, the more important seems to be the compensating assistance in learning and keeping that skill. What becomes clear through this specific discourse on attention deficits is that concentration is not a natural given, but a cultural technique that was formed in a certain way and has been trained through education systems and cultural practices. It is something that is acquired through learning and could be lost if it is not cared for enough. As Aleida Assmann emphasizes, ‘attention is not stable, but a cultural habitus which changes with every shift in media practices’ (2007: 210). Theatre plays a central role in this context. Its consideration as a ‘school’ of morals by philosophers and theatre theorists of the eighteenth century, including Denis Diderot, Gotthold E. Lessing and Friedrich Schiller, made it necessary that the audience change their attitude towards the stage. As meaning and text became more valuable, concentration on the side of the spectators turned into an urgent matter. Erika Fischer-Lichte discusses these changes as components of an encompassing process of civilization in which disciplinary action took place through an increasing emphasis on language – in the form of the written text, which had to be eloquently declaimed by the actors – as well as newly developing acting techniques and changing performance parameters that created more coherence and an overall sense. Fischer-Lichte assumes that the audience had to adjust their perceptual habits in order to cope with these aesthetic shifts, and had to develop and practise the skill of concentrated listening (2000: 62–3). Silence, stillness, darkness and being seated in a frontal relation to the stage were all factors imposed to evoke and enhance this attentive listening mode. Over the centuries, this perceptual mode turned into a powerful ideal of the focused, comprehending spectator that had a strong influence on theatre practice and has remained widely effective until today.