Łukasz Twarkowski has declared his production of Oracle at Onassis Stegi in Athens a permanent installation, canceling the closing night and announcing that the performance will now run continuously until the audience stops watching itself. The Polish director said the decision was made after he noticed that spectators were spending more time studying their own grainy black-and-white projections than the actors below.
Under the new regime, camera operators will film the audience, project the footage onto the screen above the stage, and then film the audience watching that footage, projecting the result onto a second screen installed in the lobby. A third camera crew has been assigned to the lobby screen, with its feed routed back to the original stage screen, creating a closed circuit that Twarkowski describes as «the only honest portrait of a theater audience ever made.»
Ticket holders are now issued numbered wristbands and asked to remain in their seats for the duration of the run, which has no interval and no announced end. Those who leave are filmed leaving and their departure is projected in thermal imaging, where their bodies appear as vivid red and blue figures walking toward the exit. Ushers have been retrained as camera operators and now frame patrons in close-up while checking their stubs.
The modular set has been expanded to include a small booth where spectators may watch themselves being filmed watching themselves, and a second booth where they may watch the first booth. Twarkowski said the production will conclude only when every member of the audience has appeared on screen at least once, a condition he expects to be met sometime in the next decade.