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Theatre is, by nature, a voyeuristic art. Sitting in a dark space, we eavesdrop as people play out their lives. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable when a show breaks that imaginary fourth wall. At other times we’re treated like co-conspirators, invited to spy on privacies not for general consumption. Here are a few examples.
GYPSY (1959)
The burlesque numbers in this Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim classic about stripper Gypsy Rose Lee were eye-popping on Broadway in the late 50s — especially because we first heard Lee’s slinky Let Me Entertain You finale as a cute little-girl song for her kid sister.
CABARET (1966)
In the John Kander/Fred Ebb Broadway original, a distorted mirror behind the scenes in the Kit Kat Klub made the audience part of the seedy establishment, where we were turned on by cross-dressing staff and lascivious musical numbers.
CHICAGO (1975)
Another Kander and Ebb musical, this “musical vaudeville” spoke directly to the audience, implicating viewers in the celebrity frenzy surrounding murders and high-profile trials in 20s Chicago.
TAMARA (1981)
John Krizanc’s groundbreaking script and Richard Rose’s fascinating staging in a historic Toronto building had an audience of 30, who chose which character to follow — and therefore which scene they saw — in a tale of politics, seduction and revenge set in Fascist Italy.
SLEEPROOM (1993)
A quartet of authors (Sally Clark, John Mighton, Robin Fulford and Daniel MacIvor) collaborated on a Theatre Passe Muraille show in which the audience wandered through an institution that conducted long-term sleep experiments and screwed with people’s minds. You could be lectured by a scientist or harangued by a patient as you walked through every space in the building, including the men’s washroom.
PAULA AND KARL (2001)
In Hillar Liitoja’s you-are-there show, viewers were like invisible guests watching a tense evening in the apartment of a pair of codependent sadomasochists. Drawers, closets, even the fridge was available for snooping.
