The fourth wall is the imaginary ‘wall’ at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. The idea of the fourth wall was made explicit by philosopher and critic Denis Diderot and spread in nineteenth-century theater with the advent of theatrical realism, which extended the idea to the imaginary boundary between any fictional work and its audience. Speaking directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience through the camera in a film or television program, or through this imaginary wall in a play, is referred to as ‘breaking the fourth wall’ and is considered a technique of metafiction, as it deconstructs the boundaries normally set up by works of fiction.
The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern realistic theater, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comedic effect when this boundary is broken,’ for example by an actor onstage speaking to the audience directly. The acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the suspension of disbelief between a fictional work and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as if they were observing real events. Postmodern art forms frequently either do away with it entirely, or make use of various framing devices to manipulate it in order to emphasize or de-emphasize certain aspects of the production, according to the artistic desires of the work’s creator. The term ‘fifth wall’ has been used as an extension of the fourth wall concept to refer to the wall between critics or readers and theater practitioners.
The Daily Omnivore 
Leave a comment