The Theatre Performance as Interaction between Actors and Their Audience

Based on video-recorded perfor­man­ces of rela­tive­ly naturalis­tic, modern French dramas, the study examines the behaviour of the theatre audience in relation to unfolding stage events. Such behaviour is described through close inspec­tion of the sounds the audience pro­duces, mainly coughing, throat-clearings, and laughter. CA (Conversation Analysis) methodology is used to analyse not only an audi­ence’s overt reactions to stage events, but also the actions occurring outside these relatively short-lived phenomena in the context of a theatre performance. It is demonstrated that members of the audience refrain from making ‘vocal noise’ during the verbal inter­action of actors, and some of the resources used to achieve this end are described. Furthermore, the audience’s laughter is described. It is shown how members of the audience negotiate collective moments of laughter not only with each other, but also with actors on stage, to insert a laughing turn in the unfolding sequence of dramatic actions.