Katsojan paikka teatteritilassa

Authors

• Laura Gröndahl

Abstract

This article deals with performance space as a tool for constructing spectator’s experience. I discuss theatre architecture, its critique, and related values and presumptions about reception practices. In the introduction, I discuss the significance of space in the production of ideal audiences. I ask, how architectural design and performing arts are related to each other through examples taken from the recent Finnish theatre history. First, I look at the National Theatre as the principal place for establishing artistic practices and political ideas about spectatorship. Secondly, I examine the period of most intense construction of new theatre buildings between early 1960s and late 1980s asking, why their architecture was met with strong resistance by theatre makers. Thirdly, I study the use of alternative spaces: politically oriented touring group theatres, convertible neutral stages, and old, decayed buildings as found performance places. Finally, I discuss the most recent phenomena in the 2000s.