VISION | Director | Andre Lancaster

What is the Fourth Wall? In theatre the Fourth Wall is the imaginary barrier between fiction and reality, the stage and the spectator. When the Fourth Wall is broken, the spectator witnesses "reality" intermingle with "fiction." Why break it? A common purpose of breaking the Fourth Wall is to confront the spectator with the saliency of the events, circumstances of the play. Examples of Fourth Wall breaks include an actor crossing into the audience section, the house lights being turned on during a performance or an actress self-referencing the spectacle of the theatre performance.

Oftentimes, Breaking the Fourth Wall is considered some radical notion that only "alternative" theatre initiates. That in order to break the Fourth Wall you have to directly and physically confront an audience member (usually of the downtown yuppie breed) with the performance's action. Of course these are all genuine examples, but the Fourth Wall is broken much more frequently and more implicitly in theatre performance. Like when an audience member empathizes with a character or story - the Fourth Wall is broken for the simple reason that fiction has blurred with reality... because the story, the narrative has leapt from the stage's imagine into the real hearts and minds of you, the specatator.

In A Love Like Damien's, breaking the Fourth Wall is not so much of a wake up statement to the downtown yuppie breed as it is a gentle recognition that this play contains themes of pain, struggle, and triumph that you as the spectator may share. Undoubtedly there will be many courageous spectators "in the life" through the three week run of this show. I believe that breaking the Fourth Wall will metaphorically represent an affirmation that you all, the spectators, are journeypeople, witnesses, and in fact *actors* in your own right seeking to liberate spirit within and outside these four walls.

So yes there will be the usual suspects of Fourth Wall breaks in this play. But theatre conventions aside, at one point during the show I'd put some money down (call me cocky if you want to) that you will experience theatre the way it should be. a story, a human story, maybe even your story. its reflection, memory triggered (a re-imagination): your heart, your mind, on stage. inspired.

Free Love.

Andre Lancaster