Raluca SAS MARINESCU TYPOLOGIES OF

Typologies of everyday theatricality – a game and a movie 43 Raluca SAS MARINESCU TYPOLOGIES OF EVERYDAY THEATRICALITY – A GAME AND A MOVIE Abstract. This paper studies the virtual theatricality as Virtual theatricality a part of everyday theatricality, through a speciﬁc number Theatricality is the use of the term of case studies: a computer game and a movie. Virtual theatricality is the type of role assumption produced at the theatrical imagination to describe the level of the individual imaginary; here, communication is quality of the dramatic art to transform split by an interface; the virtual role assumption is perfectly the imitation of an action into a new conscious and allows the interaction with the character creative experience, a vision and a reve- created by the one with whom the communication is carried lation shared both by the actor and by out, but never with the individual as such. the audience. Key words. theatricality, RPG, Charlie Kaufman, audiences Virtual theatricality is the type of role assumption produced at the level of the individual imaginary; here, communication is split by an interface; the virtual role assumption is perfectly conscious and allows the interaction with the character created by the one with whom the communication is carried out, but never with the individual as such. This is one of the most pervasive and easily identifiable typologies of theatricality, preceding in principle the invention of the technology that has generated the virtual media. For instance, a great part of the classic epistolary novels use EKPHRASIS, 3/2010 the techniques of the imaginary role Representation, Reality construction and of their deconstruction and Illusion in Visual Culture pp. 43-51 44 Raluca SAS MARINESCU put against the universe of the narrative role symmetric to the actor’s? Obviously, “reality” (with respect to this, the best we should accept the fact that virtual known example is Laclos’s Dangerous theatricality is more complex than the Liaisons, not accidentally dramatised mere use of certain projections in the or screened so recurrently during the dramatic performances. last decades of the 20th century. Starting To what extent is the spectator-user with the cinematographic art and ending (player) involved in an RPG2? Evidently, with computer games, all forms of artistic (this happens) to a far greater extent than expression – should we agree on the fact in the classic silent atmosphere in the that the computer game is one of the latest auditorium, where the regular meaning such forms – use virtual theatricality, identification and analysis processes take independently or together with one of place. However, undoubtedly, feedback the other two categories. In its turn, this may be obtained, the same as in a theatre is divided in more subclasses, and each or a cinema, in relationship to the type of these may be illustrated and explained of characters involved in the game, to by a case study. the decisions they make throughout Nicolae Mandea1 claims that “if we the plot, to the time spent “logged in”. accept that defining for the concept of Furthermore, in the video game, and theatricality are the relationship between particularly in the role play, the actor the observer and the observed and the and the spectator merge, since one performance of presence by a theatrical act cannot watch a game, cannot observe its of a virtual reality, we obviously enter the storyline and evolution without getting territory of the communication mediated involved directly, without interacting as by the contemporary multimedia tech- a character. Evidently, there is also the niques”. Starting from this statement situation in which someone witnesses and, particularly, by sustaining the the manner in which someone else rapport spectacle/spectator, in the case plays a game. However, such cases are of virtual theatricality, the question con- so rare that they are not worth taking into cerns the estimate of the spectator’s consideration, particularly since they involvement in the multimedia event, do not support the idea of theatricality: which, unmistakably, cannot be so easily merely watching does not mean role quantified. Does the receiver of the perfor- assumption. mance remain exclusively a spectator, or Similar to the theatre and to the is his/her participation an immersive one, movie, computer role play is constituted involving – albeit subconsciously – the in a parallel, coherent world, which has need of instant answer, of “actio” in a to offer a storyline. Depending on the 1 Mandea, Nicolae – Teatralitatea un concept 2 The term RPG denotes Role Playing Game, contemporan (Theatricality a Contemporary a type of game in which the participant Concept), UNATC Press, 2006, p. 134 undertakes the role of a fictional character. Typologies of everyday theatricality – a game and a movie 45 choices made by the player throughout of user’s and character’s consciousness the play, the scenario may modify, ensues”3 however without impact on the central Consciously, beyond a certain laps story, the relational elements of the of time (starting from one hour now and story staying the same. The frame and then, to periods consistently allowed typology are identical from the beginning during a day), any individual assumes to the end: the Middle Ages, vampires, one role or another, which resembles Mafia etc. The player initially creates purely accidentally and superficially an avatar-character who will be his/ her the real persona, at the level of clothing representation in the game, whom he/she or gender. (These are) Social roles, will control throughout the action, via bearing their own behavioural, clothing numerous choices: you’re good, you’re and rhetoric structure, or private roles, bad, you’re a magus or a gladiator, a differentiated by means of their own idea man or a woman, you talk to the other of evolution, situation, relationships and characters or you apply them the death discourse4. At the theatre, such a role strike as soon as you meet them. The assumption takes place at the level of characters evolve differently, depending the spectator’s identification with one on the number of points gathered, on the character or another, or with a certain experience, on the time in the game, on situation. Similarly, in the case of com- the number of victories or defeats. puter games, too, we are dealing, in a Both the RPG player and the theatre compulsory manner, with the denegation spectator share the desire of facing a effect, i.e. “the assiduous burdening, by the spectator, of the product represented fictional world. However, to what extent by the stage discourse with the mark does role assumption work and what is of non-reality in relation to daily its relation to theatricality? existence”5. The difference is that, in “The process of secondary identification taking place in cinema theatres depends paradoxically on distance while in the 3 Filiciak, Miroslaw, ‘Hyperidentities”, in case of games we encounter something Wolf J.P., Perron, Bernard, eds., The Video more than just intimacy. Identification is Game Theory Reader, Routledge, N.Y./ replaced by introjection – the subject is London: 2003, p. 88. projected inward into an “other”. We do 4 With respect to this, see Goffman, Erving, not need to complete imitation to confuse Viaţa cotidiană ca spectactol (The Presen- the “other” with the “self”. The subject tation of Self in Everyday Life, Editura (player) and the “other” (the onscreen Comunicare.ro, 2006. avatar) do not stand at the opposite sides 5 Runcan, Miruna, Pentru o semiotică a of the mirror anymore – they become one. spectacolului teatral (Towards a Semiotics of the Theatrical Performance), ed. Dacia, (...) During the game, the player’s identity collection Biblioteca Teatrul Imposibil, ends in disintegration, and the merger Cluj, 2005, p. 52. 46 Raluca SAS MARINESCU this case, the computer interface (the prefabricated program, the game sty- listics and aesthetics etc.) substitutes only partially the fictional universes of the theatre or movie show; control decisions concerning the plot are almost simultaneous with the interpretation of the situation and arise unbiased from the virtual role assumption. In other will manage to clarify to a certain extent words, the spectator’s role laps over the the elements of virtual theatricality, actor’s, the player entering consciously too. A “live action RPG” is a game re- in a parallel, fictional world, vested as quiring the compliance with a series of such, where information is processed throughout the entire story. He/ she set rules and applying in the players’ builds his/ her own character, guides and real life, becoming a style of living. The controls him/ her, in order to acquire new development of the game depends on the skills, to develop him/ her and, in the end, players’ decision in their private life, in in order to win the game. their relationships with the other mates. However, they are not allowed to bend Case study: the rules set by a book that one can buy Vampire: The masquerade – Bloodlines from bookstores. In Romania, such a game In order to support the concept of thea- had no kind of success, nor had it in any tricality, we will discuss a certain game, of the European countries. On the other whose principle of construction applies hand, America, the country inventing the perfectly to the RPG typology, but whose “reality show”, promptly embraced thus borders have crossed – long before the type of entertainment, which has become, actual creation of the game – the virtual by the role assumption required by the computer world, being something real in rules, a lifestyle adopted by the fanatics the beginning. of the simulacrum. Vampire: The masquerade – Bloodlines6, VTMB is based on The World of Dark- VTMB, is a role playing game, inspired ness created by the company White Wolf, from a “live action role playing game”.

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