Fourth wall

This article is about the performance convention. For works with the title "The Fourth Wall", see The Fourth Wall.
In Stanislavski's production of The Cherry Orchard (Moscow Art Theatre, 1904), a three-dimensional box set gives the illusion of a real room. The actors act as if unaware of the audience, separated by an invisible "fourth wall", defined by the Proscenium arch.
The Proscenium arch of the theatre in the Auditorium Building, Chicago. It is the frame decorated with square tiles that forms the vertical rectangle separating the stage (mostly behind the lowered curtain) from the auditorium (the area with seats).

The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onwards, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept.[1][2]

The metaphor suggests a relationship to the mise-en-scène behind a proscenium arch. When a scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a box set, the "fourth" of them would run along the line (technically called the "proscenium") dividing the room from the auditorium. The "fourth wall", though, is a convention of acting, rather than of set design. The actors ignore the audience, focus their attention exclusively on the dramatic world, and remain absorbed in its fiction, in a state that the theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski called "public solitude" (the ability to behave as one would in private, despite, in actuality, being watched intently while so doing, or to be 'alone in public'). In this way, the fourth wall can be created regardless of the presence of any actual walls in the set, or the physical arrangement of the theatre building or performance space, or the actors' distance from or proximity to the audience.

"Breaking the fourth wall" is any instance in which this performance convention, having been adopted more generally in the drama, is violated. This can be done through either directly referencing the audience or the work they are in, or referencing their fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance. This act of drawing attention to a play's performance conventions is metatheatrical. A similar effect of metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended. The phrase "breaking the fourth wall" is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as video games and books.

History of the convention

The concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic and dramatist Denis Diderot.[3] The term itself was used by Molière.[4]

Typical stage, fourth wall being the house.

The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern realistic theatre, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comedic effect when a boundary is "broken", when an actor or character addresses the audience directly.[1][5] Breaking the fourth wall is common in pantomime and children's theatre where, for example, a character might ask the children for help, as when Peter Pan appeals to the audience to clap for Tinkerbell. One play that uses the fourth wall extensively for comedic effect is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).[6]

The acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the suspension of disbelief between a work of fiction and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events.[2] Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible scrim that forever separates the audience from the stage".[7]

In cinema

Oliver Hardy was probably the first to break the fourth wall, in his movies with Stan Laurel, by staring at the camera to seek comprehension from the viewers. Groucho Marx spoke directly to the audience in "Horse Feathers", 1932. Comedy films by Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker frequently broke the fourth wall, such that with these films, "the fourth wall is so flimsy and so frequently shattered that it might as well not exist", according to the A.V. Club.[8] Woody Allen broke the fourth wall several times in his movie Annie Hall, as he explained, "because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them."[9] The John Hughes movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off is another well-known fourth-wall-breaking movie. Bueller, played by Matthew Broderick, often turns to the camera and breaks character to tell his thought process or explain his reasoning. In the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, the characters literally break the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is an integral part of the ending of Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain. More recent examples include the 2016 film Deadpool, in which it is used as a comedic device between the main character and the audience.

On television

On television, breaking the fourth wall is rare, though it has been done throughout the history of the medium. George Burns did it numerous times on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show he starred in with his real-life wife Gracie Allen from 1950 to 1958.[10] It's Garry Shandling's Show and Mrs. Brown's Boys both have their title character walking between sets mid-scene, and the latter occasionally shows characters retaking fluffed lines.[11]

Hugh Laurie (R) breaking the fourth wall and addressing the TV viewers during a sketch with Stephen Fry

Another television character who regularly breaks the fourth wall is Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut. Urquhart addresses the audience several times during each episode, giving the viewer comments on his own actions on the show.[12] The same technique is also used, though less frequently, in the American adaptation of House of Cards by main character Frank Underwood.[13]

The convention of breaking the fourth wall is often seen on mockumentary sitcoms, including The Office. Mockumentary shows which break the fourth wall poke fun at the documentary genre with the intention of increasing the satiric tone of the show. Characters in The Office directly speak to the audience during interview sequences. Characters are removed from the rest of the group to speak and reflect on their experiences. When this occurs, the rules of impersonal documentary are shattered. The person behind the camera, the interviewer, is also referenced when the characters gaze and speak straight to the camera. The interviewer, however, is only indirectly spoken to and remains hidden. This technique, when used in shows with complex genres, serves to heighten the comedic tone of the show while also proving that the camera itself is far from a passive onlooker.[14]

In Video Games

By the interactive nature of video games and the more than common presence of UI elements on screen, nearly all video games break the fourth wall unintentionally by asking for the player's participation. However, video games also employ purposeful breaks in the fourth wall. Such as the 2016 game World of Final Fantasy which was noted by reviewers for its numerous fourth wall references.[15][16] On different occasions, main character Lann comments on the game's script[17] and asks sister Reynn what the countdown clock on the game's HUD is.[18] Both times he is reprimanded by her for mentioning the game's fourth wall. Or in the 1998 role-playing game Fallout 2 where the player character or can actively break the fourth wall with several dialogue choices or when the game jokingly actively references other Interplay games through dialogue.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Bell, Elizabeth S. (2008). Theories of Performance. Sage. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4129-2637-9.
  2. 1 2 Wallis, Mick; Shepherd, Simon (1998). Studying plays. Arnold. p. 214. ISBN 0-340-73156-7.
  3. ↑ Cuddon, J. A. (2012). Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-32600-8.
  4. ↑ Mangan, Michael (2013). The Drama, Theatre and Performance Companion. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-137-01552-5.
  5. ↑ Abelman, Robert (1998). Reaching a critical mass: a critical analysis of television entertainment. L. Erlbaum Associates. pp. 8–11. ISBN 0-8058-2199-6.
  6. ↑ "Study Guide: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" (PDF). Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Canby, Vincent (June 28, 1987), "Film view: sex can spoil the scene", New York Times, p. A.17, retrieved July 3, 2007
  8. ↑ Blevins, Joe (March 1, 2016). "This supercut breaks cinema's fabled fourth wall hundreds of times". A.V. Club. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  9. ↑ Björkman, Stig (1995) [1993]. Woody Allen on Woody Allen. London: Faber and Faber. p. 77. ISBN 0-571-17335-7.
  10. ↑ "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show Cast". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
  11. ↑ Dessau, Bruce (1 March 2011). "Mrs Brown's Boys: mainstream comedy for the middle-aged". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ Cartmell, Deborah (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen. Cambridge University Press. p. 244. ISBN 0521614864.
  13. ↑ Macaulay, Scott (24 April 2013). "Breaking the Fourth Wall Supercut". Filmmaker. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  14. ↑ Savorelli, Antonio. Beyond Sitcom: New Directions in American Television Comedy. North Carolina: McFarland, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7864-5992-6
  15. ↑ "PAX 2016: WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY MIGHT BE THE FUNNIEST GAME IN THE SERIES". IGN.com. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "The World of Final Fantasy Review". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tg9I4wW9Tk&feature=youtu.be&t=6m28s
  18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVlEOLUl__E&feature=youtu.be&t=23m11s
  19. ↑ The Vault Fallout Wiki: Fallout 2 cultural references

External links

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