Character as a pose

Abstract

The article discusses the transformation of actor-character relationship in “Lokis” (LNDT, 2017, dir. Łukasz Twarkowski). Within the digital reality produced and reproduced on the scene, the character is no longer created by the interaction between the actor and dramaturgy but between various theatrical and virtual means of mediation. It is claimed that in this performance, the actor’s personality and individuality are no longer as significant as his external and physical or mechanical functions. The actor himself becomes a virtual media broadcaster. It is attempted to show that digital media excessively used in the performance multiplies and magnifies actor’s image on such a scale that the “original” living and real person himself becomes virtual and fictitious. In other words, the actor himself becomes a character which is already re-produced. Since the actor-character relationship is established as a mediated relationship in the first place, virtuality as such in Lokis becomes the basis and possibility of actor-character co-presence on the scene.