Eric Bogosian Is a wonderfully strange and yet amazing artist. He combines his work with a scattering of stories and characters, which are generally all varied from one another. However, his merit of structure within a piece of theatre [in my opinion] stands him head and shoulders above his contemporaries in that respect.
His work focusses on masculinity and somewhat, the patriarchy that dominates society. His work seems very authentic, as even though he is playing a various amount of characters, he will often snap in and out of character to reveal the real him. As if the real him is aware that the audience are aware that it is Bogosian playing the character and not the character dominating. This 4th wall realism [if you will] I feel adds authenticity to his work, as it allows the audience to see the actor behind the character. Within theatre, breaking character isn’t necessarily a good thing, as it can ruin a performance and from then on ruin the credit of the actor. However, when Bogosian carries out this act, the audience forgives him as they are dying to see a glimpse of the actor beneath. This triple threat split personality engages the audience massively in my opinion. As they are waiting for who will appear on stage next, the character they just had, the one they’re going to get, or Mr.Bogosian himself.
Although this type of performance appeals to me and my ideas, I do not feel that it would be a good idea to jump out of character whilst multi rolling like this. Therefore, if I endeavoured to take on the challenge of a multi rolled story [for want of a better word] then I would have a subtle light or music change to symbolise the transition. Personally, I would never appear to be out of a specific character, as I feel it is a little too risky, as well as somewhat unnecessary. Thus, if I chose to use Eric Bogosian’s methods, I would simply stay in character and hope that would engage the audience enough, without adding that sort of risk into the performance. This being said, I credit Bogosian for what he does, and believe there is no one of his calibre out there, that does what he does, as of yet.