WHAT shape will post-pandemic theatre take? Everyone predicts massive change. Sir David Hare recently said the art form was in need of a ‘revolution’. Kwame KweiArmah, announcing his new season at the Young Vic, revealed plans not only to livestream all productions, but to offer online audiences a chance to choose their own angle of vision.
The general consensus is that theatre cannot simply return to its old ways. I understand that. And one thing is for sure: audiences, sustained by watching shows on their laptops, will expect that to continue. But I have a strong belief that, once people feel safe, they will be hungry to attend live events.
Every theatergoer knows that one is far more than a passive spectator: by one’s very presence, one is helping to influence what one is watching. We also don’t talk enough about the purely social aspect of theatre: the pleasure of meeting old friends, of making new ones or the vicarious joy of seeing how one’s chosen companion reacts to what one is seeing. Thackeray, a passionate playgoer, put it well in Pendennis when he wrote that ‘a man who has long since left off being amused with clown and harlequin, still gets a pleasure in watching a child at a pantomime’. You don’t get that in front of a laptop.
Esta historia es de la edición May 19, 2021 de Country Life UK.
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