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, commu- nication 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”. Of which is the redesign in the real world of course, this new series of terms requires the universe later on retrieved in VTMB, an amplification, which, in fact, we hope according to preset rules, including clans and hierarchies, a parlour game at an ampler scale. Bloodlines attempts to 6 Additional information on this game is persuade the players that they can change available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ the surrounding world by the choices Vampire:_The_Masquerade_%E2%80% they make, whether we are talking about 93_Bloodlines Typologies of everyday theatricality – a game and a movie 47 the manner of approaching a task (the At this point, the elements of virtual violent alternative or sneaking behind the theatricality crop up; they are defining enemies) or about the manner in which for this type of game, which, in fact, they communicate with the NPCs7. substitutes the primary forms of thea- Strictly owing to these choices, Blood- tricality of childhood games and which, lines has five different endings. The path for the generations born after the 1990s, to be travelled by the player in order represent an astounding share of enter- to reach one of these endings is full of tainment. Furthermore, a great part of the obstacles. Even if we are talking about the RPGs, and many other types of computer personification of vampires, the world games, borrow from the film and the birthing the character directed by the theatre dramatic vehicles, character player is as real as possible: it includes typologies, as well as actors. art galleries and tunnels, nightclubs and Chinese districts. The alter ego (in Case study: Synecdoche, New York. already common terms, “the avatar”) in Whereas, obviously, the RPG computer the game may be selected from among game is a coherent form of everyday seven vampire clans (of the 13 existing life theatricality, would there be any in the pen & paper universe that inspired possibility to define the cinematographic the game), all clans pertaining only to the theatricality within the same category? Camarilla, the so-called “good guys” of The answer is evidently affirmative, the VTMB universe. to the extent to which the movie uses Apart from the choice of the clan, a “meta-referentiality”, suggesting the which dictates the game approach, the cinematic copy of society. One such player has to choose the character’s sex, the non playing, programmed characters perfect example is in Charlie Kaufman’s (NPC), reacting differently throughout the game, conditional on this initial choice. The development of the game depends at first hand on the player’s choices: the dialogue with another character provides multiple answers to the various answers and missions proposed, all these choices depending unavoidably on the player’s personality and not on the character’s.

7 NPC or “Non Playing Characters” are the characters with whom the hero interacts throughout the game, generated by the computer and impossible to control by the player. 48 Raluca SAS MARINESCU films8; in what follows, we will discuss attached. Starting from this, he decides to particularly Synecdoche, New York. direct a ground-breaking play, founded on Our topic does not relate to the an extreme realistic system; a gigantesque quality of the movie, which is, in any production, including a huge casting case, rather difficult to challenge, nor team, to be performed in an abandoned does it deal with the personal choice of hangar in Manhattan, where a small-scale cutting excessively long scenes, in order replica of New York would be built; the to double the message of the movie. The topic of the play is just the everyday main issue tackled by Kaufman is the life in the famous American metropolis. confusion between life and art and the Whereas, at first hand, this should have reverse, the conclusion relating to the role stimulated him, Caden gradually loses assumption. The identification with the the contact with the real world, becoming character that we “perform” fictionally is the prisoner of a misleading world, in real if we choose to introduce equality in which real life would be mistaken with the relationship observer/observed. the imaginary one, at the level of total Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour role assumption. Hoffman) is the manager of a small dra- Clearly, the analysis of the movie matic company who had planned a will start from the title, precisely be- stage adaptation of a new version of the cause we are dealing with the sugges- famous play Death of a Salesman. The tion from the very beginning of the beginning of the movie places the main key of interpretation. According to the character during the dress rehearsals Explanatory Dictionary of Romanian9 and of the premiere. However, in his the word synecdoche is a noun denoting private life, things are far from perfect; “figure of speech made of the expansion his wife leaves him taking away their or contraction of the meaning of a word daughter, Olive. Furthermore, he is also by using the whole instead of the part suffering from a series of strange health (and the reverse), the particular instead disorders, since he is also an increasing of the general, the general instead of hypochondriac. When he least expects the particular, the material from which it, an unusual event occurs: he wins the something is made instead of the thing famous Mac Arthur prize – a prize to etc.” The dictionary definition itself, which a considerable amount of money is related to Kaufman’s movie, calls for the idea of theatricality comprehended in the 8 Charlie Kaufman is the script-writer for meaning of our thesis: fictional identity the movies Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless assumed as role through an interface, in Mind, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, our case the cinematographic studio that Being John Malkovich and, especially, Adaptation, an authentic poetics of the new type of postmodern scenario. Synecdoche, 9 DEX, online version, http://dexonline.ro/ New York is also his directing debut. search.php?cuv=sinecdoca Typologies of everyday theatricality – a game and a movie 49 reproduces, gradually, in a laboratory jar, applies the “key” frame on all the aspects the “everyday” identity of the city. of the main character’s life. He is able to The first mark of meta-referenciality see himself and identify, in the first half in the movie does not arise from the of the movie, with seemingly unrelated objects that will become symbols, from characters, for instance those in a drug the character’s job (i.e. director), or from advertisement. Later on, the characters the first scene of theatre in the theatre. in the advertisement shall be retrieved Undoubtedly, the primary signal shall their place and relation to the characters spread in all these, but it is released in the movie. by the first scene between Caden (the As the plot progresses, reality becomes director) and Hazel (the girl at the box- increasingly difficult to distinguish from office, in love with Caden, the one with fiction; in other words, the main cha- whom he will start an affair, but who will racter starts taking real life scenes and stand by him, accepting the role playing transforming fiction in reality, compelling games proposed by the director): the actors to play their own parts. “We “Caden: You’re not an idiot.” need to investigate. You know, to really Hazel: Then you say: In fact, Hazel, discover the essence of each being”, the you’re very bright, and I love your eyes. director says to his actors. Furthermore, Caden: In fact, Hazel, you’re very bright. his own life reaches a point where it is Hazel: Oh, am I? guided by some king of deceit resulting Caden: And I love your eyes. from theatricality, from the imminence of Hazel: Do you? Oh, you’re a darling. the observation, of the “exterior eye that Caden: Then what do I say? dictates the frame”. Hazel: I can’t say what then you say. Caden, a hypochondriac, uses the Caden: Why? disease excuse in order to prove to himself Hazel: Because it’s dirty.” that he is closer to death; death is one of It is the first form of role proposal, even the main topics of the “study” represented if from a character different from the one by the “grand directing design”: when he who will later on claim and demand the feels like crying, he use the “tear substi- assumption. However, the function of the tute”, drops that stimulate his emotional character Hazel is given away right from relief. The moments of privacy start being this scene: she is the motor and promoter invaded by real persons in the director’s of the creation of the synecdoche, at all everyday life; such persons play the part of its levels. of the voyeurs. Caden’s life gradually Unfortunately, we do not have the turns from an observer’s existence to space necessary to analyse each symbol one of the observed. The two functions and take of this movie, which would be merge for a great part of the movie, and worth a sequential study. However, similar in the end they substitute one another to Goffman’s use of an interpretation- completely. After the first half of the supporting frame on the society, Kaufman movie, we see Caden with an already 50 Raluca SAS MARINESCU well delineated design: “I won’t settle for La mise en scène becomes monstrous anything less than the brutal truth. Each the more the story progresses: new rooms day I’ll hand you a scrap of paper. It’ll tell are added to the setting, new characters you what happened to you that day. You emerge incessantly; everything starts felt a lump in your breast. You looked at looking like a giant building from which your wife and saw a stranger, et cetera.” a wall has been removed. But will it When asked by the actors “When are we stay like this? Looking from the oppo- gonna get an audience in here? It’s been sing sidewalk, Caden is revealed the 17 years”, the leading character answers existence, in reality, of the “fourth wall”, by involving his own being in the grand made from the walls that delineate the plan, in the copy of the reality he wants “theatrical” residences from the outside to create. world. Therefore, the leading character One of the important moments of the will erect this wall, too, in his own mise story is the employment of the person to en scène, so that the spectator should be physically separated from the characters play Caden, in other words the employ- he sees, similar to the voyeur lurking ment of the competitor I, which turns inside a house. into the confrontation with the double. While the construction becomes Only at a second watching do we observe, outlined and augmented, Caden’s per- at the level of the picture control, the sonal life declines. Whereas in the presence, now and then, of an extra beginning his wife, Adele, leaves him, shoulder or of a character sitting on the taking away their daughter, Olive, other side of the road. This is the one towards the end, the meeting of Olive, in audition for Caden’s role, who, in his on her deathbed, points out the perverted turn, reveals himself in order to change distance between the two characters, a the equation – this time from the observer distance also installed at the language into the observed – after he admits having level: Olive speaks German, and Caden spent twenty years in observation of English. The scene stands for the lies his character. In the end, the imitation and compromises that people need to becomes so real that the character’s role undertake during their life, the roles attains values of “vampirism” of the that they have to play and not those they “auctorial” self. deliberately choose. Things grow ambiguous at the level Death, one of the central themes, is of the frames, too: the kitchen at home illustrated extremely graphically in this is identical with the one in the setting; scene, by the drop of a petal from the the real spectators need several seconds tattoo on Olive’s hand. Again, we are of adjustment in order to understand dealing with the mistake of representation whether they are watching the plot in for the reality, at the object level. the movie or the plot of the play in the Nevertheless, such ambiguity – equal movie, “en miroir”. to the total virtual role assumption – is Typologies of everyday theatricality – a game and a movie 51 generated when character Ellen appears, setting and no longer knows dying, unless the former wife’s maid, whose place is directing indications are provided to him taken by Caden in reality, as he goes on how to do it. In fact, the hour of the each night to clean Adele’s apartment. beginning of the movie plot is identical Since this is one of the aspects in his with the hour of its end. Kaufman pictures everyday life, the leading character- a man’s life, relating to human existence, author feels he needs to include it in the in the form of a single “fictional” day, script. Subsequently, he employs an Ellen buried in the virtual theatricality. whose place he will occupy in his own In the end, Synecdoche, New York is play. perhaps the most complex example for The end of the movie is enlightening, the definition of the concept of everyday in the sense of Shakespeare’s phrase drama in the terms of role assumption. “All the world’s a stage; And all the men The simulacrum in the movie is the and women merely players”. Caden has performed virtual. Cinematographic dra- the revelation of his own mise-en-scène ma is obviously subject to the virtual when the actor-voyeur playing him and theatricality. We live in the age of simu- mistaking, in his turn, reality for fiction, lation, when the old concept of “mimesis” choose suicide: “There are nearly 13 attains new valences. million people in the world. I mean, can An integral part of the globalised you imagine that many people? And none society, virtual theatricality can be of those people is an extra. They’re all provided with an artistic function, both leads in their own stories. They have to in the theatre and in the cinema, as be given their due.” screenplay structure, as writing technique Death, away from which characters of montage, as video image turned into run throughout the movie, gradually a character, parallel and simultaneous surfaces: Caden mistakes himself for dimension, or as mere fictional role Ellen, he forgets about his role of director; assumption, mediated by (and under he start living in one of the “rooms” of the protection of) an interface.

References Filiciak, Miroslaw, ‘Hyperidentities”, in Wolf J.P,Perron, Bernard, eds., The Video Game Theory Reader, Routledge, N.Y./London: 2003. Goffman, Erving, Viaţa cotidiană ca spectactol (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life), Editura Comunicare.ro, 2006. Mandea, Nicolae - Teatralitatea un concept contemporan (Theatricality a Contemporary Concept), UNATC Press, 2006. Runcan, Miruna, Pentru o semiotică a spectacolului teatral (Towards a Semiotics of the Theatrical Performance), ed. Dacia, collection Biblioteca Teatrul Imposibil, Cluj, 2005.