Eating Air, Feeling Smells: "Hamlet's" Theory of Performance

Sale, Carolyn

doi:10.1086/rd.35.41917445

Cited by 14 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…According to Holly Dugan (2009), smell helps to connect “the environment of the theater with the dramatic world unfolding on stage” (p. 733). Carolyn Sale (2006, p. 145) has also emphasized the material connection that is created between actors and audience, both of whom, in her words, “eat” the same air and “feel” the same smells. The members of the audience in Renegade Theater’s 2015 production of Glass: Shattered , an adaptation of Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie , smelled the perfume shortly after the actress playing Amanda had sprayed it on herself prior to going on stage.…”

Section: On the Deliberate Use Of Scent Since The End Of The 19th Cenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The smell of actors cooking, smoking, and/or applying perfume has long been an incidental feature of the olfactory environment in the theatre (see Feagin, 2018; Margolies, 2003; Reason, 2003). As has been made clear at several points throughout the text, the recognition by audiences that they are inhaling the same scented air as the actors can exert a psychological influence, drawing attention to the connection between the audience and the actors on stage—helping to break down what is sometimes referred to as the “fourth wall” (McGinley & McGinley, 2018; see also Dugan, 2009; Feagin, 2018; Sale, 2006). This is, though, something that only occurs in a live-performance setting (i.e., and not in response to the scenting of the cinema).…”

Section: On the Deliberate Use Of Scent Since The End Of The 19th Cenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scent in the Context of Live Performance

Spence

2021

i-Perception

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Ambient smell has long been a feature of live performance, no matter whether its presence was intentional or not. While, once upon a time, the incidental presence of malodour was an inevitable feature of proceedings, the deliberate use of scent can actually be traced all the way back to the earliest rituals. This review attempts to trace the long history of scent’s use in processions, pageants, and, most important, performance. From Shakespeare’s time onward, scent has been used as an atmospheric/ambient cue. It has been used to create a certain mood, to trigger memories/nostalgia, and, on occasion, it has also served a narrative role. While the use of scent has often been merely illustrative (or pleonastic), there have been numerous occasions where olfactory stimulation has taken on a far more important evaluative role, critical or otherwise. Most often, this has been in the theatre, but also on occasion in the context of the opera, musical, ballet, and comedy too. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in scenting live performance/entertainment, especially in the context of highly immersive and experiential multisensory events. While high-tech solutions to scent delivery have been a prominent feature of its use in the cinema, low-tech solutions have more often been incorporated in the live-performance setting. This and a number of other important differences between scent’s use in the theatrical versus cinematic setting are highlighted.

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Section: On the Deliberate Use Of Scent Since The End Of The 19th Cenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: On the Deliberate Use Of Scent Since The End Of The 19th Cenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scent in the Context of Live Performance

Spence

2021

i-Perception

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Hamlet’s ‘Spendthrift Sigh’: Emotional Breathing On and Off the Stage

Tsentourou

2019

Hamlet and Emotions

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This chapter addresses how the body's release of the breath troubles, in the context of theatrical representation, the boundaries between the internal and the external and between actors and audience. Drawing on Renaissance and modern theories of emotions to explore the affective resonance of sighing in Hamlet, the chapter examines what it means to waste one's self in breath, or how breath consumes the body as much as it invigorates it. Hypocritical, instrumental, communicative, self-consuming and self-revealing, breathing in Hamlet has no fixed referent but shifts as often as the characters shift their position and perspective, constantly pointing to the impossibility of ordering Hamlet's and the playgoers' experience.

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Humoural Versification

Stagg¹

2021

Humorality in Early Modern Art, Material Culture, and Performance

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Eating Air, Feeling Smells: "Hamlet's" Theory of Performance

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Scent in the Context of Live Performance

Scent in the Context of Live Performance

Hamlet’s ‘Spendthrift Sigh’: Emotional Breathing On and Off the Stage

Humoural Versification

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