disagreement

"The Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt insisted that the theater begins with a disagreement between what one sees and what one hears. "If I go to the theater" he wrote, "and I close my eyes, and I understand what I am hearing, then it is not theater, it is a lecture. If I go to the theater and close my ears, and I understand what I am seeing, the it is not theater, it's a slide show. The theater begins with a disagreement between what you see and what you hear."

How many times have you gone to the theater and watched people rotate around a couch for two hours, illustrating what they say whith what they do? Compare this behavior with that of real life where people rarely do what they say. It is a rare moment when one person faces another and says: "I love you". Usually the words are uttered as someone is leaving the room looking at his watch. The difference between what is seen and what is heard expresses a basic truth about the relationship portrayed."


Anne Bogart & Tina Landau, "The viewpoints book"