NYTimes.com: Some plays are worth defying claustrophobia for. As a capacity audience crowded onto the benches that surrounded the rectangular stage of the tiny black-box space of the Royal Court Jerwood Theater Upstairs, I could feel my chest tightening and my breath growing shorter. It didn’t help that layers of white balloons covered (and lowered) the ceiling in molecular formations. I had to admonish myself, as I do in such circumstances, “Theater critics do not faint on the job – except, on rare occasion, metaphorically.”
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
London Theater Journal: Big Ideas in Small Spaces
NYTimes.com: Some plays are worth defying claustrophobia for. As a capacity audience crowded onto the benches that surrounded the rectangular stage of the tiny black-box space of the Royal Court Jerwood Theater Upstairs, I could feel my chest tightening and my breath growing shorter. It didn’t help that layers of white balloons covered (and lowered) the ceiling in molecular formations. I had to admonish myself, as I do in such circumstances, “Theater critics do not faint on the job – except, on rare occasion, metaphorically.”
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First off, it is important to note how this article was written. I thought that was clever. The writer was describing and evaluating these shows and at the same time, doing it in a way that introduced his physical experience in each theater. That was incredibly interesting because the atmosphere of a theater isn't always the first thing that people will talk about. Mostly, it is about the physical show, however, the atmosphere is everything. I've been a part of shows that explicitly direct the atmosphere to make the audience feel a certain emotion straight off the bat.
The shows that he goes on to talk about are also incredibly intriguing. "All in the Timing", was especially familiar. Having only read it in an English class, it was cool to see it mentioned. On top of that, finding a performance of it online was also interesting, since I haven't seen it actually done. There are some really entertaining versions of that script floating around, well worth the search!
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