0 an imaginary wall that separates the audience from the action of a stage play or film, which is said to be broken when an actor talks directly to the audience or starts talking as themselves rather than as their character:
She seamlessly breaks through the fourth wall at one point, and plays with the audience.
He shows a keen instinct for how to serve a dramatic situation, how to bring an audience through the fourth wall of a stage to the very soul of the matter.
Hitcho utilizes the space well by making eye contact with the audience to draw them into the scene, thus eliminating the usually impenetrable theatrical fourth wall.
The film-maker eventually smashes the fourth wall and has his lead actor break character to ask the director where the story is going.
However, the 'fourth wall' should be treated as a metaphor rather than a literal reference to the 'missing wall' in the proscenium stage.
In this understanding, the 'fourth wall' may refer to any type of stage, meaning the temporal and spatial distance created by the actors from the audience.
There's no fourth wall, temporary or otherwise.
The fourth wall seems the most controversial and difficult of all.
