Silence on stage is sometimes more dangerous than screaming.

Silence is not the absence of sound.

In theater, silence is often an amplified pressure.

When an actor stops talking, the audience doesn't really go into blank space.

We will begin to hear breathing.

Hear the friction of clothing.

I heard a slight noise from the chair.

I even heard my own uneasy judgment.

Silence makes viewing impossible to hide.

01 Silence exposes space

Lines focus attention on meaning.

Silence exposes the space.

How empty the stage is.

How far away are the actors from the audience.

How cold the light is.

Why standing alone makes people uncomfortable.

These things are often obscured in language.

When silence comes, they all emerge.

02 Silence makes the body bigger

When an actor speaks, the audience tends to follow the content.

When an actor is silent, his body suddenly becomes huge.

Where to put your hands.

Where the eyes look.

Have your shoulders dropped?

Is your breathing messed up?

All details will be magnified.

Cruel theater exploits this amplification, making the body the text.

03 Silence is not a pause

There are a lot of stage pauses just to create a rhythm.

Silence in a cruel drama is not a simple pause.

It's a constant pressure.

It's in no rush to bring the audience back into the story.

It leaves the viewer in an unexplainable state.

The longer this state lasts, the harder it is for the audience to remain on the sidelines.

04 Why we are afraid of silence

Because silence does not organize meaning for us.

It doesn't tell us what to laugh about, what to cry about, what to understand.

It gives the judgment back to the audience.

At the same time, it also returns the responsibility to the audience.

Why are you upset?

Who do you expect to speak first?

Why do you want the scene to pass quickly?

Silence forces the viewer.

05 Good silence requires structure

Silence on stage does not mean casual silence.

It requires structure.

There must be energy accumulation ahead.

Actors must be in physical condition.

The space must have a direction of pressure.

The audience has to be brought to a certain breaking point.

Otherwise, silence is just a cold moment.

The real silence is the moment when the theater withdraws its knife.

The knife is not in sight.

But the pressure remains.