Well, that depends on how much you trust the historical record, and, I guess, whether you believe anything can be verified by documents at all. The “real” Thomas Chatterton was a historical personage – an 18th-century English poet who committed suicide at the age of 17, after having invented a 15th-century poet, Thomas Rowley, and published a series of “found” poems under that assumed identity.
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This show seems like one of the most interesting pieces of theatre I have heard of. I love shows that make the audience think and doesn’t just hand the audience the answers to all of the questions they are asking, and this show makes the audience think in so many unique ways by just not showing every audience member the full story. I love that every person who sees this show will have a completely different experience and that they have a dinner where the audience can talk to other audience members to learn about their experience at the show. I really feel that there is no point in seeing a show if you don’t discuss it after with other people. Discussing shows is the best way to really find what you learned and what you thought of the show. Immersive theatre is something that has been done many times, but I have often times seen it done poorly. This show seems to find a perfect balance between telling the audience a story and having the audience being part of the story, and I think the way they do this is to have the audience think and that they allow every single person to interpret the show differently. There is no one “right” answer for what happened in this play, and I love that.
This article describes the production of “Chatterton,” done by the Quantum Theater. I think this is the kind of show that I would need to see for myself before making any judgments. I do have a feeling that I would find it infuriating that the plotlines were so intertwined and confusing but I also think that would depend on how deftly each plotline is handled. The article’s author says that it was hard to feel attached to characters because of how fragmented the story was and the limited time available with each actor but I also think that it is probably hard to write a reliable review on this kind of theater because it is so individual. Each person has a completely different experience and will feel completely differently about it. Despite initial reservations, I think I would actually love to go see this production. I think it is important for new kinds of theater to be explored and produced and, even if you might not love them, I still think it is important to go see them and explore all that the theater world has to offer.
The review makes it clear that the idea of the production is great but the execution could have been better. Having read another article about decoding the theatre reviews, phrases like ‘you have only a very partial and incomplete picture of any of the three or four story lines’, and ‘there is a lot of ambition behind this production’ stick out even more than they used to. It must have been a strenuous evening for the critic.
I love the fact that there is a theatre company in town that produces experimental productions and makes enough money to keep doing it. I got curious about the financial situation of the company and found out that the artistic director made $83,865 in 2016 and the company ended the year with $513,416 of net assets. It’s public information and can be found on guidstar.org. I can’t say whether this number is good or bad. But also, I cannot blindly support the theater productions knowing that multiple production managers resigned in the past couple years and that the artistic director and the staff do not really care about the safety or wellness of the backstage folks.
I did a report on the Quantum Theatre a few weeks ago, and since then I have been very excited for the opening of Chatterton. The Quantum Theatre is all about doing experimental theatre in unconventional spaces. Reading this article not only made me more confused about the plot and concept about Chatterton, but also more excited. It seems like this may be one of the most confusing pieces of theatre, as you have to choose a "track" to follow, and that by the end of the show you don't even know the full story presented. I feel like you may have to go see this show at least three times to fully grasp the story--and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I think there are many theatregoers out there that would not be a fan of this concept, but as I said – Quantum strives to make experimental pieces, and I think they have definitely made an interesting piece in Chatterton.
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