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You make some great points. Theatre, in my view, is essentially a dead art form. It is a
story-telling medium but the fact is that there are simply far better ways to tell stories now. If
playwrights were any good, they wouldn't be playwrights. They'd be scriptwriters, earning six or
seven figures per year from Hollywood. So we end up with all these no-hopers writing sentimental,
self-indulgent tosh.
And if you live in Scotland, as I do, you have an additional problem. For some reason, just about
every Scottish play you see is full of made-up, pseudo-Scottish words that no Scottish person has
ever actually used, like, say, "smetherin". "Soap smetherin', will ye?" What does it mean? No one
really knows. Maybe the playwright looked it up in the Concise Scots Dictionary. Maybe he made it up
himself. He seems to think he is doing some great patriotic service to his country by using these
obscure words. I beg to differ. |
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Theatre is boring. Theatre is rubbish. I go often and when I go, I am almost always disappointed.
Theatre is not cheap. I can see a Hollywood blockbuster for about six pounds, but I pay nine pounds
or more to go to the theatre and most of it is total rubbish.
Now, here I want to clarify a point that many people do not understand. I am not talking about
simply not enjoying something. There is a mile of difference between something that is not good and
something that I do not enjoy. Having worked in the industry one way or the other for the past,
fifteen years, I am good judge of what is high quality work and what is utter tosh.
Most of the plays that I see are poorly written, and even more poorly staged. The plays are
navel-gazing tripe about things that might interest their middle class audiences, they do not
interest. Surely the value of a great play is the same as the value of a great story. It keeps you
guessing, it keeps you interested and as an audience member, you do not think or guess yourself
ahead. Suspense makes a great story.
Somewhere along the way, theatre became self pleasuring nonsense. We lost the sense of the great
story. Just because it can't do what television and film can do, doesn't mean that it shouldn't try
to aim for something great.
Many times in the theatre, it seems the director is simply pleasuring themselves. At a recent
production of an adaptation of Tamburlaine must Die at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, the
adaptor/director/designer Miller clearly had his mind set on just having a jolly. It wasn't good
for the audience, and it was frankly embarrassing for the actors.
I do not understand why anyone would pay this person to continue to do their job. Then again, the
theatre is a closed world, full of people scratching each others backs, and old gay boys network it
often is. I don't resent the gay part, I do resent the network exists to further careers of
talentless dilettantes.
Theatre should be written for everyone. I do not believe it is any longer. I believe it is written
to make the middle class feel guilty about this or that. After all, the longer the writer is
successful, the more middle class they are. They no longer represent the powerful voice they may
have as a younger or less experienced writer.
Theatre can sometimes be wonderful. But rarely. It is highly subsidized, but no wonder people are
cutting the funding all over the place if all they ever see is painfully boring, contemplative
claptrap.
I suggest that we look again at how theatre is made, look for plays that actually entertain and
develop us and less about the intelligentsia pandering to itself. |
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It's entertainment. Who doesn't love entertainment? |
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I prefer it to the movies. |
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You underestimate a beautiful art. |
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Theatre can even be better than film, in my opinion.
Sure, there's some absolutely terrible plays out there, but if you compare those to the amount of
terrible movies out, well, I'll stick with theatre. |
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It totally and completely depends on the movie you go to see.
I think you should do some background research before you go to see the film, in order to enjoy it
more. Or even ask some people about it.
I have to agree somewhat though, there are some pretty lame films out there. |
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Real talent often exists within theater. You can manipulate special effects within movies that can
cover up your lack of skill to express and evoke emotions, but in theater all you have is yourself. |
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No, it's not!
It's entertainment, just like the tv!
It was around before any of you were, so why don't respect your "elders"!! |
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Theater is a place for people who have a bad time at home to take it out on stage by being somebody
else and being a character they will never get to be in real life. |
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Theatre is a place where a person learns to act and also gets to understand what it is to stand in
front of a mass of people and explain them that you are not one among them. Nothing can ever be
better for actors to learn acting other than the theatre. It induces in someone the ability to
increase their sensibility and bring the better part of them more out of themselves. Many actors
from all over the world has emerged out of the theatre background and has shown their artistic
ability to the whole world. Their personality, representation of a character, understanding
capability is seen to be much more than others. Theatre creates many talents and uplifts the culture
from many aspects thus it has more prospective sides in terms of art and culture. |
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I've seen more movies that are rubbish than plays. It doesn't take talent to be a movie actor these
days. You just stand in front of the special effects. The only real acting left is on stage.
Many of the movies I've seen have cost me more than money, they've cost me time I can never get
back.
Script writing is hack work. Earnings don't equal talent, seven figures doesn't make you a good
writer, just an expensive one. |
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Now hear this: Thespians have more talent than those bloody screenactors. You have INSTANT feedback
from your audience, and what do you think movies spawned from? Any movie actor (note the word
actor, started by theater!) can take as many shots as they need to get it right, but it takes skill
to do it in one shot. And name me one, single actor in a movie who memorized his entire script for a
show. You can't because they might have teleprompters or simply scripts off screen to go review if
they mess up. |
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I disagree here. I personally enjoy going to the theatre. It is cheesy, I guess but it's still a
good experience. Going to the cinema all the time, takes its toll after a while, and your not going
to go to the theatre very often, really are you? So, a once in a while trip to the theatre is great,
to see something in a different way then on the big screen :) |
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20 Dec 2007 19:35
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