Goodbye, winter!

Spring has sprung and this young (cough / splutter) man’s thoughts turn to love, the love of theatre.

Spring has sprung and this young (cough / splutter) man’s thoughts turn to love, the love of theatre. I had just been thinking that in spite of everything that technology has thrown at us – television, film, idiots filming themselves on You Tube, theatre is still alive and doing pretty well, all things considered. Sure we still struggle, numbers go up and down, but there never seems to be a week without hearing about some show that is going gangbusters.

So why exactly is that? Why when you can go see millions of dollars being spent on the screen in all manner of special effects do some prefer to go see some intimate little show that has the budget of the producer’s credit card limit? It’s the simple reason why theatre will always have a place. You can watch the same film a hundred times but it never changes, a play is performed differently everytime it graces the stage. All the little nuances, the emotion, the actors performing the work, the response of the crowd, all add together to give a truly unique experience that only you and your fellow audience members will have the honour of witnessing. And who can beat the intimacy of a cast performing a play live before your eyes?

I thought recently, do you think Shakespeare could have ever guessed that his work would still be performed after all this time? Did he ever imagine that Romeo and Juliet would have died over a million times? And what modern plays will last the test of time? In the year 2356, will they be having Williamson by the Water, Marber by the Moat, Badham by the Boats or my own personal pick, Tunks by the Trees.