Invisible Doors

Theatre has done a lot to introduce me to the wonderful world of human psychology. Obviously, characterisation techniques and the like can get pretty psychological, but there's almost as much to be learned about the human mind from members of the audience as from the cast.

In the theatre where I've done most of my work, the entrance to what was once a projection booth - we now call it the "sound booth", although it holds tech stuff and techies of all disciplines - is a door from the foyer of the theatre, very close to the large double doors which allow the audience into the auditorium.

During one show, I was running around frantically (as usual) and needed to get into the sound booth in a hurry. The catch, however, was that a woman was standing in front of it. Being a polite young gentleman, I asked her if I could please get to the door. She looked at me oddly for a moment, and then said "Yes, of course you can," without moving an inch.

It took me almost a minute of stilted conversation to realise that she thought I was talking about the main doors, which she was in no way blocking. She did not realise she was standing in front of a door. Of course, if you were to point it out to her - which I eventually did - she would recognise it immediately, and identify it as a door. It wasn't particularly small, or poorly lit, or disguised as a wall. It was a door, no doubt about it.

But this door was one of those doors that people just don't see. I suppose you could call them "utility doors", the doors that are used by workers and staff, never by "outsiders". Because of this, these "outsiders" just write the doors out of reality. It's like the internal censor that keeps Terry Pratchett's Death "invisible", or Douglas Adams' Not My Problem Field. Because they don't use the doors, their internal cartographer just overwrites the door as a wall - they never go through it, and therefore it may as well be one.

As crew - one of the background people that do use these invisible doors, my own mapping algorithm doesn't skip them out. In fact, I pay particular attention to these doors, purely because other people don't. It's like one big secret shared by crew-like people everywhere, just as effective and just as invisible as Inquisition-era secret passages. And these doors are everywhere, too - supermarkets, movie theatres, actual theatres, office buildings, everywhere. Now that you've read this, there's a decent chance you'll start seeing them as well. Another one of the wonders of the human brain.