The Theatrical Spectaculum

This book offers a new mythic perspective on the secret of the allure and survival of a current-archaic institutionthe Western theatrein an era of diverse technological media. Central to the theory is the spectaculuma stage world that mirrors a monotheistic cosmic order. Tova Gamliel here not only alerts the reader to the possibility of the spectaculums existence, but also illuminates its various structural dimensions: the cosmological, ritual, and sociological. Its cosmo-logical meaning is a Judeo-Christian monotheistic consciousness of non-randomness, an exemplary order of the world that the senses perceive. The ritual meaning denotes the centrality of the spectaculum, as the theatre repeatedly reenacts the mythical and paradigmatic event of Biblical revelation. Its social meaning concerns any charismatic social theory that is anchored in the epitomic structure of social sovereigntystage and audiencethat the Western theatre advances in an era characterized by hypermedia.