Marc and the Audience

First, I would like to state that this play has been very interesting to read, especially when considering its form. As Keatan remarked, the protagonist actually communicates directly with the audience, in sort of a stream of consciousness way. To continue this, some characters do represent different aspects of Gillimard’s thoughts. For example: Marc represents the idea, associated with westerners in this particular play, that women should be overpowered. But to continue on this idea of a breaking the wall between audience and characters, I would like to address the moment when the audience sees the Marc and Gillimard discussing the audience with each other. In the end of scene five, Marc interacts with women in the audience by waving at them, and then making lewd gestures at them. After Gillimard asks Marc about what he is doing, the play reads as follows:
“Marc: Huh? (Sotto Voce) Rene, there’re a lotta great babes out there. They’re probably lookin’ at me and thinking, ‘What a dangerous guy.’ (p. 9)”
Here, the connection between audience and the characters are complicated a little bit because the stage directions “(sotto voce)” meaning soft voice in Italian, call for the construction of a pretend wall between the characters and the audience. This wall that is broken down throughout most of the play is then reconstructed, or at least pretended to be reconstructed as Marc talks about he audience. I am not sure what is meant by this. The whole idea of a play is that the audience hears what is being said on stage. The stage directions here, suggest that this line should be said in a secretive tone. However, this could be taking in a joking way, and instead of a seriously whispered tone, the actor playing Marc could whisper loudly so that the audience knows he is whispering but can still hear him. Either way, a pretend wall is still being constructed in this line.
It’s also important to acknowledge what Marc is actually saying about the audience. Instead of calling ladies within the context of the play “great babes,” he’s also objectifying the women in the audience. By judging the audience the same way he judges women in the story, the Marc’s character extends ideas that could be held completely within the play, into real life.