I rely on James Joyce; “—

"Art,'said Stephen, “is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end. The esthetic emotion (I use the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing.”

" Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the sufferer. Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the secret cause."

James Joyce

“Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man”

completely stolen from a website:

The mind perceiving the “grave and constant” in the sufferings of man, the inevitability of death and pain, is risen beyond individuality to compassion and a recognition of shared humanity. The feeling of terror (something different than fear, mind you) shatters us in awe at the workings of the life-giving and life-consuming universe.

Neuroscience would say that this transportation of an audience has to do with the psychopysical involvement occuring in their mirror neurons.

For myself, having experienced the overwhelming awe inspired by great theatre, I have felt a deep love for humanity who suffer on despite the absurdity of death.

Thank you for your thoughts. It puts me in mind of Shelley who in describing creation could also have been describing the aesthetic experience of a sensitive audience :"for the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness; this power arises from within, like the color of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure."

I am also mindful of Simon Callow's introduction to Chekhov's "To the Actor", ( paraphrasing here) where he describes transported experiences and muses whether the rise of naturalism and realism in theatre has diminished the capacity of performers to bring an 'epic' transcending experience to the stage. Such that many today are imprisoned by 'mind forged manacles'.

What wonderful answers! I have a couple of thoughts. In the Poetics, Aristotle frames the purpose of drama in both civic and spiritual terms. People who went to the Theatre Dionysus weren't there to see how Oedipus turned out (there were probably very few Athenian spoilers). Instead, it was a civic conversation conducted through theatrical performance. This becomes even clearer with the rise of Greek comedy. The spiritual connection is tenuous, but as an actor and director I am certainly mindful of it. Many of the actors in the golden age of Athenian drama were priests of Dionysus. That stuck with me through my years as a performer. Before my first entrance in any play, no matter whether I was performing Lady Macbeth or Mona Kent, I took to saying to myself, "let the work I do serve the Good." This is especially hard when you are playing a bad guy. You have to shine a flashlight around your brain until you find the place where that character's choices "make sense." That kind of truth and commitment in performance can carry an audience with you because there's something contagious about the honest personal connection of the actor to the character. We in the audience find ourself urged to conduct the same sort of truth-finding in ourselves. 

That is a fascinating response. It brings to mind to number of associations. First I think of the late Seamus Heaney's concern that it is not enough to be inspired, but we need to live in a way that when the inspiration comes we can trust that it has a moral source. Heaney elicits Wordsworth as a guide in this. Also in the Anthroposophical approach to theatre making which extends to all the makers ( actors, directors, lighting, set, costume) , the artist is left free, but there are recommended meditations to live with. 

I think with acting the 'bad guy' , if you have such self knowledge that you can recognize the potential of such tendencies within yourself so that you can encompass what is it like to live like that and have empathy for them, that gives you the truthfulness from which using your training and craft you can aim to shape them as an objective creation. Such that with plays such as Macbeth, the artfulness/aesthetics of the  production leaves the audience free to safely take the cathartic journey of the play.

What makes a great theatrical performance? Over the years the stand out experiences  for me were the productions of Peter Brook, Complicite, Bell's Pericles. I lived to London for 10 years from 1975 - 1985 and saw a lot of excellent theatre during that period and some of the street theatre I witnessed in Brazil was certainly engaging. 

Since returning to Australia in 2000 I have certainly seen  shock theatre, clever theatre, poor theatre ( quite charming at times), classic plays somehow communicating inspite of director's simplifications, but few moments of deep aesthetic experience. 

Thanks for the references. It is always exciting to to widen one's reading. I shall look forward to following them up.  Like you, Peter Brook talks about  his main focus being the quality of contact between the performers and the audience, definitely not something to be taken for granted. Is your PhD published?

Thank you so much for this question, Neil! As a playwright, I´ve always thought that writing a play is like giving birth and that staging a theater play is like raising the child. A good performance can make a play even better and a bad performance... well, we all know what it can do. The responsibility of the artists that carry on the staging of a play is huge. 

Having said that... For me, a great performance is one that elevates the text, that makes it richer, that gives it life, that makes me feel deeply, that makes me think, that makes me live in ways I never thought possible. One that makes me feel I´ve just witnessed magic in its purest form.

Magic ! Parallels with your own creative processes,  T S Eliot's dark embryo, dreaming, delight, moved by heart and lung, soul substance, spirit wakening.