Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (review)

Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre is one of a small but growing body of works integrating cognitive studies into theatre theory. Authored by Bruce McConachie, one of the preeminent voices calling for theatre scholarship to make use of cognitive studies, the book follows on the heels of Performance and Cognition: Theatre Studies and the Cognitive Turn, edited by McConachie and F. Elizabeth Hart, as well as an entire issue of Theatre Journal devoted to the use of cognitive studies in theatre, in which McConachie was a featured contributor. With Engaging Audiences, he aims to provide the reader with an overview of the cognitive processes of human perception systems that underpin the act of spectating. In so doing, he challenges some of theatre’s most widely used theories, chief among them Lacanian psychoanalysis, Saussurean semiotics, and Derridian deconstruction. Insightful and thorough analyses of theatrical productions and texts, coupled with audience historiography, help to elucidate the cognitive processes McConachie outlines. Well-written and easily accessible, Engaging Audiences sets itself up as a critical introductory text for anyone wishing to better understand the subject of audiences.

The first chapter of the book introduces the general cognitive operations of the mind/brain of all typical human beings. These universal cognitive operations include: how and why concepts are created in the mind/brain; the cognitive characteristics of play; how the embodied mind informs conceptual creation; memory (both short and long term); counterfactuals (concepts that are potentially conflicting and run simultaneously); conceptual blending (the process of blending two or more distinct concepts together to create new concepts/metaphors); and human emotion. This discussion of cognitive operations also addresses the two ways of viewing: visual perceptions, which are the information picked up by the visual system regarding inanimate objects; and visuomotor representations, which are generated when one intends to act upon what one sees or when one watches another individual acting in the world.

Using theories and research by cognitive luminaries like Elizabeth Wilson, Mark Johnson, Gilles Fauconnier, and George Lakoff, as well as the work of Julia Walker, Bert States, and David Saltz, McConachie calls into question some of our most basic assumptions regarding theatre, such as the “willing suspension of disbelief” and how spectators make sense of what they see onstage. In direct conflict with semioticians, McConachie claims that humans are always already endowed with the ability to make sense of theatrical productions, because they are always already endowed with the cognitive ability to blend concepts. Rather than reading the “signs” of a theatrical production in order to make sense of them, the processes of conceptual blending, coupled with our ability to switch instantaneously and unconsciously between visuomotor representations and visual perceptions, cause us to understand the world of the play both as real-life events (the actions taking place onstage) and as fictional events (the events taking place in the world of the play).

Chapter 2 examines social cognition—how the human mind/brain understands social interactions. Using cognitive theories of mirror neurons, empathy, gesture, speech, and emotion, McConachie argues that our ability to understand social interaction stems directly from our innate ability to subconsciously mirror the emotions and actions (which include speech) we see others feeling and performing. Especially notable in this section is the distinction he draws between empathy and sympathy (influenced by Susan Feagin) and the discussion of the cognitive dynamics that make empathy a prerequisite for sympathy.

In the third chapter, McConachie examines the cultural model of theatre, examining how various elements of theatre (for example, casting conventions, narrative construction, genre, and theatrical venue) influence the act of spectating, as well as how our cognitive abilities allow for change over time to cultural models such as theatre. The epilogue deals specifically with how theatre historians might make use of cognitive studies in their research. Solidly written, this chapter offers exciting potential for theatre historians by explaining and exemplifying...