Theatre

[eduard_green]

Simon Callow raised an interesting point - Why do you go to the theatre? Do you go cause you think it's good for you? Do you not go cause it's boring? What would make it more interesting? This is the question I have been asking myself, cause I much prefer cinema to theatre in general, but I have seen some great pieces of theatre that could not have

Comments

[laserboy]

I've grown increasingly bored and put off by the cinema experience, not to mention the appalling behaviour of the modern cinema go-er. It's not really good enough any more. I'm now considering pretty much not bothering in the future unless it's a special showing (or gold class, which tends to filter out scum).

I don't go to the theatre nearly enough. This might sound daft, but I think the problem with theatre is that it can be very theatrical. :-)

[eduard_green]

You are just going to have to explain that last comment! : ) What on earth do you mean? Over acting?

[andrewducker]

To be honest, I don't think there's much I've seen in a theatre that's really taken advantage of it. Which isn't to say I haven't seen some good plays, and really enjoyed them, but I suspect I'd enjoy a good actor with good dialogue just as much if they were in a film as a play.

In theory, plays should get to be more experimental, because people are more used to using their imaginations in them - I'm much happier to imagine a small square of theatre as being whatever the actors say it is, whereas in TV/film I like to see what it is I'm supposed to be looking at. But sadly the economics of theatre are nearly as bad for experimentalism as the economics of TV/film.

[eduard_green]

Theatre I think has some of the advantage of animation in that one thing can turn into another, time and space can move very quickly then very slowly, and it doesn't matter so long as the audience can keep up. But it can be incredibly moving to see it happening in front of you rather than animated. feels like a magic trick!

[octopoid_horror]

Remember when we went to see 1984 and you said something about how it was odd at the theatre that, in theory, you -could- heckle or run up on stage?

I think that's what weirds me out.. that you -could- do that.. and that.. I dunno.. there is more contact than it sometimes feels like there should be.

It depends on the play - it's more prevalent for me in plays with a lot of staring out, talking to the audience. 1984 pretty much avoided that, in the end....

When I saw The libertine, the performance my brother was in... at the start, the main chap strolled around the small stage, tapping the audience members gently with his cane and directly addressing them and kissing the hand of the female audience members

[eduard_green]

Yeah, I remember that 1984 we saw. I think that is one of the things that used to make me uncomfortable in the theatre, but now I relish - that you are in the same room as something happening - you could run up to the stage or heckle them easily because you are there with them. It's great for comedy, but when someone is furious or crying or during the torture scene in 1984, it is a lot harder to watch than if it had been on film.

I think now though that this is one of the great things of theatre and shows should be very conscious of this, use it when they can. Not nescessarily just talking directly to the audience, although I think that's great so long as it's not over used - stand up comedians do it all the time and audiences are usually comfortable with it happening, but they get more thrown when it happens in plays.

Sometimes when I'm at the theatre I feel like a ghost walking through someone's house - I can see them but they can't see me. I like that. its unique to theatre.

[andrewducker]

He talks to the audience at the start/end of the film, and that works very well. But I can definitely see that working even more effectively at the theatre.

I'd like to see Reservoir Dogs done as a play - in some ways it's more theatrical than it is filmic.

[octopoid_horror]

It's been done. Can't remember when/where

[diotina]

Philip Auslander talks about "liveness"--the quality that sets theatre apart from film and television. When I go to see theatre, it is its liveness that appeals to me--the fact that each and every performance is different, in whatever miniscule way--the moods of the performers, the audience, things that can go wrong, which you can never get with cinema. Good theatre for me evokes a visceral involvement, a more human engagement separated from the interface of technology--however fancy a production, it is indeed that very possibility that you can heckle or run up on to stage that makes it work for me. That is one reason why I enjoy out of proscenium theatre a lot of the time, forms like street theatre, for example, brings it so near, and in your face, that it is impossible to not feel that we are all humans in this together and that us humans can create such great art--through mere word and action we can, together conjure seemingly impossible worlds

[eduard_green]

yes, i have been to a few classical concerts but I don't think it suits me at all. I -can- get lost in the music, and concentrate on it in a way I don't at home - the volume and the lack iof anything else to do brings that out, but I don't love doing it. Its a shame cadenzas aren't used freely in classical music, but plenty of other forms of music freely improvise - remember the divine comedy gig?

I like flat stages with the audience surrounding it best, for a lot of things, but having a variety of stages in the world is good - adapting to suit performances [all that site specific stuff we talked about].

[wisemanharris]

I went to see a production in London, probably a couple of years ago now, called something like...."Fully Committed", it was a comedy about this guy who worked in the office of a posh restaurant in Manhattan, it was a one-man show and basically revolved around him answering the phone and playing all of the different characters himself.....now that you just could not do in any other medium because it involved appreciating this one actor's comic skill and sheer energy. It was in a tiny theatre so you could really see the sweat dripping off him, and although there were few props as such the stage was set up with the desk and a wall behind, both covered in posters, post-its, postcards, trolls, all the ephemera you would expect to find in a chaotic office, which you could let your eye wander over and appreciate all of the detail and the little jokes over the course of the play

[wisemanharris]

More generally, I think the attraction of theatre or live music is something about appreciating a craft......like having an appreciation for a hand made woolly hat (for example) even if the machine made one looked almost (but not quite) exactly the same