Perhaps I should say why I often find theatre embarrassing. I sometimes find myself feeling embarrassed for the actors, because they're up there 'showing off', drawing attention to themselves - my father's nonconformist roots showing again. Tut, tut, tut. Then I also think there's a pressure on the audience, which leads to phony behaviour. For example, I hate it when they laugh louder than they would if it were a film, because it's a social interaction. The audience is then being theatrical too and that, surely, is completely inappropriate?
Does anyone else feel this or am I going mad?
To be honest I hate going to the theatre, purely because I always end up wanting to sneeze or cough at an inopportune moment, try to stop myself and go purple... ruins the enjoyment of the thing!!!
But seriously, you are right in that people behave differently in the theatre. There is that possibility of interaction with the cast that you don't get at the cinema, and I suspect a few people to try to angle a little something in the hope of a few lines in the review.
Anecdote time (sorry)... my sister once went to an early showing of Grease, when Shane Ritchie was playing Danny. She has a very loud distinctive laugh, which ended up reducing him to giggles as well. He passed comment, had some flowers brought round for her in the audience - which embarrassed her enough to completely shut her up for the rest of the performance. What a star.
Posted by: Stef | July 07, 2008 at 09:19 AM
"Films are even stranger, for what we are seeing are not disguised people but photographs of disguised people, and yet we believe them"
- Jorge Luis Borges on films (and before that, on theatre) (1977)
Must find the whole essay, it was a corker...
Posted by: Iain | July 07, 2008 at 11:18 AM