Gallery (theater)
The gallery is the top (usually second to fourth) tier of a theater , i.e. the highest gallery on which there is seating and standing room. There were in the 18./19. Century the cheapest seats, so that young people, soldiers, servants and intellectuals mixed. In most theater buildings there was a separate staircase to the gallery so that the gallery audience could not meet the rest of the audience.
The gallery audience was considered politically sensitive. The reactions of the gallery public were feared, as they were not afraid to comment loudly on the performances or to hiss at unpopular actors . The popular, somewhat coarser works on the program were called gallery pieces .
The gallery was ironically called Olympus because the lowest social class was placed highest. The French film Children of Olympus , shot during World War II, is dedicated to the gallery audience.
Groceries were usually sold in the gallery. Friedrich Kaiser wrote about the Theater an der Wien around the middle of the 19th century: “The second and third galleries were occupied by the less well-off, who were given the pleasure of visiting the theater at least once a week thanks to the cheap entrance fees. Up in Olympus one saw people who, of course, did little to force themselves and made themselves comfortable in shirt sleeves in the oppressive heat; In the interim acts, the calls resounded in the heights: 'Fresh beer - smoked sausages!' "