Is the sidewalk scene in “Network” performed live?

Yes, it’s really live.

Here’s what the “Network” audience sees projected on a video screen: Tatiana Maslany, playing Diana, and Tony Goldwyn, playing Max, run into each other on the street. They talk, they kiss, and they walk to a restaurant. They open the door, and appear at a restaurant on stage — where they proceed to have sex.

Here’s what’s really happening: the two actors are outside on West 44th Street, she on the south side, by the Long Room bar, and he on the north, by Cafe Un Deux Trois. There’s usually a crew of seven — a Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera operator, a sound person, a video technician trailing a 100-yard cable with audio, video and power, two stage managers, a dresser and a security guard — who, according to union rules, have to stay on the Belasco Theater property, basically under the marquee.

Ms. Maslany crosses the street to meet Mr. Goldwyn, they talk and kiss, and then, following the camera crew, walk down a cleaned-out and re-lit maintenance alley along the side of the theater until entering via a stage door.

The whole thing, crafted by video designer Tal Yarden, is broadcast to the audience inside, and the audience is supposed to understand, in part because the video is one long unbroken tracking shot, that what they are seeing on screen is actually happening in real time outside. “What I like is that you are between worlds — reality and fantasy get mixed up, and as an audience you have to decide, do you believe it or not,” said the show’s Tony-nominated director, Ivo van Hove.