 Ancient Greek comedy in particular made frequent use of it (though examples can also be found in tragedy).In early modern English theatre, characters often adopt a downstage position in close contact with the audience and comment on the actions of others sarcastically or critically, while the other actors assume the convention that the first remains unheard and unseen while so doing.Following the work of Robert Weimann and others, theatre studies uses the terms "locus" and "platea" (relating to "location" and "place", borrowed from medieval theatre) to describe this performance effect—the "locus" is localised within the drama such that its characters are absorbed in its fiction and unaware of the presence of the audience; while the "platea" is a neutral space in close contact with the spectators that exists on the boundary between the fiction and the audience's reality.