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The paper is primarily a self-reflection of the author as a theatrical spectator, attempting to reconstruct the principles and basis of his very first fascination with theatre. In the paper, fascination is understood as an “experience matrix” through which the author – now in the position of “professional spectator” – has been exploring theatre steadily ever since and confronting everything seen (whether consciously or subconsciously). He analyses the way how the pandemic transformed the needs and preferences of the audience, giving concrete examples of the productions he saw during the year at festivals (after the end of imposed “spectating abstinence”). Special attention is paid to the field of constructing the spectator’s experience according to two agelong desires of theatre makers, which are, in a way, contradictory. The first is the desire to offer the spectator a fictional world into which she/he will be fully drawn, because she/he will find it richer, more complex, and more engaging than the world of his or her everyday life. The second is the desire to create something that is not only consumed by the spectators as a better or worse-constructed aesthetic artifact, but to make something “real” on stage for the spectator. Two productions by the director Milo Rau –The Family (NT Gent) and the film The New Gospel – are discussed as examples of the remarkable effort to combine authenticity with illusion at the same time.