Thursday, February 18, 2010
Can Theater Create a Dialogue About Immediate Subjects?
NYTimes.com: "THE theater critics for The New York Times, Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood, looked at the spring season’s offerings and found a number of productions that addressed pressing issues. Are political shows making a comeback? They discussed this and other aspects in an e-mail conversation excerpted below."
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3 comments:
I think that this article very appropriately portrays the "Why this play now?" question. They begin by asking why theater hasn't been able to keep up with modern journalism and modern events, and make a very interesting claim that in "a culture of instant satire" theater can no longer provide good satire because it has already been discussed so thoroughly online and in other venues. I agree with this statement- and it leads these authors to what i think is a very appropriate conclusion. They say that, though new theater seems to be struggle to gain topicality, that it is the plays that are being brought back that can truly show our current state best by a valuable interpretation of them.
I think that what they are saying about whether a play will be interesting to audiences by the time that it is out of the workshop stages is very interesting. I think that there are many way to write a political play in a way that it will still be interesting to audiences in a year or so. I agree with Brian that this article is portraying "Why this play now?" very well. I think that if a political play is written well, it will still make sense to audiences many many years to come, much like Hair.
I think this is a bit of an odd question that I've never really considered before. Come to think of it, I usually hate it when plays depicting news stories debut directly following the event it's depicting. Theater isn't journalism. Why would I want to go see a play that's plot is being broadcasted on CNN all day long? I don't want this to appear black and white...because of course there are some exceptions. For instance, I thought prop 8 the musical was an excellent coming together of collaborative and creative talent that brought humour to an otherwise difficult and disappointing situation to many people. But I don't want to see a play about the Guantanamo trials right now. People are analyzing the situation day and night, and the last thing I want to do is see a play about it. Theater should reflect real life, but I think there are limits to this. Often times, people use theater to escape from real life. There is a fine line...and a lot of it is very personal. No one is right or wrong, this is just my opinion.
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