Box set (theatre)

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In theatre, a box set is a set with a proscenium arch stage and three walls. The proscenium opening is the fourth wall. Box sets create the illusion of a interior room on the stage, and are contrasted with earlier forms of set in which sliding flats with gaps between them create an illusion of perspective.

Box sets were introduced to the English theatre by Elizabeth Vestris. They later became a feature of realist theatre, and an example of the "fourth wall removed" principle that characterized the work of noted realists such as Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, or Anton Chekhov.