Theatre Conversations

While I was reviewing and writing up the interviews I conducted, I found it interesting that many of the respondents had the same reaction to the relevance of theatre:

"All I can do is try to make something that feels relevant to me; that moves and excites me, and hope therefore that it does the same for others"

"I write about... something which fascinates me..."

"I bother because I love it, I care, I'm excited by the people I work with and what they, and we, have to say."

Does this mean that the act of creating theatre is something that is very personal? And does that make it selfish, or honest?

With one of my participants, we discussed, at length, how theatre has been around since the earliest times: the idea that the telling of stories is inherent in our nature, and that the theatre is simply a formalising of the cave and campfire. I found this comparison particularly lovely!

Image Source: blogs.egu.eu

Image Source: frontiers-of-anthropology.com

Believed to show figures holding hands around a central focal point (possibly a fire)

Another comment that I particularly liked was regarding my question as to why people may come to see a very relevant play? For example, there was a recent production that concerned a young couple moving into an area of London that was undergoing 'gentrification'. Many of the people who came to see the play would have either been directly or indirectly affected by the events depicted in this play, and I wondered why they would come to see something that they have already experienced?

The response from one participant was that by making the mundane into a play, it validates the experience of the individual, can make them feel that even the smallest events are deserving of being seen and heard, and that "if art imitates life, then it can make even the most seemingly insignificant life into art."