An intermission (American English) or interval (British English) is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening. It should not be confused with an entr'acte (French: "between acts"), which, in the 18th century, was a sung, danced, spoken, or musical performance that occurs between any two acts, that is unrelated to the main performance, and that thus in the world of opera and musical theatre became an orchestral performance that spans an intermission and leads, without a break, into the next act.
Marmontel and Diderot both viewed the interval as a period in which the action did not in fact stop, but continued off-stage. "The interval is a rest for the spectators; not for the action.", wrote Marmontel in 1763. "The characters are deemed to continue acting during the interval from one act to another." However, intervals are more than just dramatic pauses that are parts of the shape of a dramatic structure. They also exist for more mundane reasons, such as that it is hard for audience members to concentrate for more than two hours at a stretch, and actors and performers (for live action performances at any rate) need to rest. They afford opportunity for scene and costume changes. And of course performance venues take advantage of them to sell food and drink.
Psychologically, intervals cause audiences to return to reality, and are a period during which they can engage critical faculties that they have suspended during the performance itself.
Famous quotes containing the word intermission:
“What, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps most of all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life and the calculations of public life.”
—Joseph Epstein (b. 1937)