The Laboratory Theatre Spectator’s Paradox

This article focuses on the concept of spectator in the Laboratory Theatre of Jerzy Grotowski, a complex and ever evolving idea. If Grotowski sought, throughout various spectacles of the Laboratory Theatre, to create a true encounter between actors and spectators – whose relationship is at the centre of his theatre – he quickly put into question the efficiency of the spectator’s participation and of the merging of scenic and audience spaces. The encounter he sought to foster in spectacles such as The Constant Prince or Akropolis consisted in keeping the spectators away from what they saw, insisting on the specific stance of the latter.