Theater and Stages

There are often times throughout the film where the boundary between theater and reality are blurred—an important tactic for Thornhill within his profession.

While Thornhill is in the Townsend mansion with Vandamm, he mentions the show that he was missing due to the mistaken kidnap. The shot is set up theatrically as we see Roger standing right in front of red curtains which resemble curtains on a stage. Bellour sees this shot as a direct connection between Thornhill and the theatrical stage. Thornhill mentions that he is missing a show at the Winter Garden Theater due to this false kidnapping. “Thornhill seems truly to stand at the front of the stage he alludes to, as if to announce that the fiction in which he finds he has been caught arises from the projective fantasy initiated by a theatrical performance.”[15] This mention of the play is one of the very few times we witness Roger as a part of a consumer society—yet he is still unable to attend.

In the shooting scene at Mount Rushmore, Thornhill acts as Kaplan to help the government agents and to protect Eve. This scene is theatrical because of the shot of Mount Rushmore, which looks like the backdrop of a stage set and the use of a gun with blank bullets, a prop of sorts.[16] (Play Acting clip)