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We've had a couple of threads about our own turns on the boards, but does anyone here go to the theatre regularly? Would you consider yourself a fan of modern theatre? I recently saw a showcase of new writers at the Royal Court, and with a few honourable exceptions I thought it was a bit poor. The West End is in the shit as well. I suppose the question is...
Can anyone convince me of the (artistic? political?) importance of the Theatre? I am sceptical

― Will, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New answers.

― Will, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

surely your time in the West Essex Rep and your honourable part in 84 Charing Cross Road were enough to convince you that theatre is the lifeblood of the nation Will? :)

i don't go as often as i like but i think that theatre is hugely unappreciated. the last time i went was with DG and RickyT and LC to see the Jacqueline Susann biography thing - it was briliant.

― katie, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love smallscale productions of modernist plays, or modernist smallscale productions of Elizabethan/Jacobean plays. There was a great theatre company here in Dublin that did lots of these, but they seem to have given up.

This means that now I never go to the theatre.

― DV, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Live acting surely must be something worth saving.

― Ronan, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My time in the West Essex Rep was a big influence in my asking this question, Katie! ;-). It just struck me as wierd that we start a lot of threads about new films, and hardly any about current plays (I know this is due to the ILE population being globally-dispersed and all, but still...)

― Will, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Monkey: A Tale From China" was fantastic. Did you get to see it in the end, Jonnie? The martial arts were nothing short of breathtaking throughout, and the cloudfighting scenes were pretty sharp as well.

Anything that mixes intense gratuitious bouts of combat with Buddhism and philosophy gets my seal of approval. It embraced Brecht's concept of community theatre by combining the trivial with the profound.

― Trevor, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Wiosdom of Bert Kwouk: "Learning about Buddhism from television entertainment programmes is a dangerous thing" (I Love 1979, BBC2, 2000)

― mark s, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm going to go see Monkey some time next week with a critical eye (I am a bit obsessed with versions of the original which I have read in about fifteen different translations). Looks cool though.

I like the theatre a lot, but go less than I would like (lack of theatre buds with cash, not easily drop-in-able as cinema). I also think that cinema has changed the way we see plays, and often as not plays have a hard time in bringing up what they are good at. Yes there is an awful lot of revivalism in the West End, but even having two or three good contemporary theatres to be used as feeders for decent West End productions (the ALmeida, Royal Court, fringe like The Kings Head) makes London a very vibrant place. But are you really going to risk a tenner on a fringe play which odds are will be cramped, poorly staged and probably badly written? I know I got burnt twice in a week twoi years ago and having put my head into a fringe theatre since.

― Pete, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

LC = theatre geek so I regularly get dragged along.

― DG, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Lack of theatre buds with cash' - I wonder why (with cinema, too) there is an expectation that you're not to watch things on your own? Its not as if you're going to the theatre/cinema with the explicit aim of socialising - you won't even be talking to your mates for most of the evening. I don't mind going to the cinema on my own, certai

― Will, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am going to see the National Theatre of Brent's The Wonder of Sex tonight. Has anyone seen it, or anything else by them? It sounds quite funny.

― Sam, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

-- The Wiosdom of Bert Kwouk: "Learning about Buddhism from television entertainment programmes is a dangerous thing"

Mark, you seem to be forgetting that the story of Monkey is one of the oldest and most important in Chinese culture. The story of Tripitaka's journey from China to India to collect Buddhist scriptures is based on an identical journey undertaken by a Chinese priest, Hsuan Tsang, around 600AD.

The "modern" version of the story was written by Wu Cheng-en in the 16th century.

The television entertainment programme came some years later.

― Trevor, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I regularly go to the cinema on my own (Christ I'm going in about half an hour), but I've always felt theatre to be more social. Maybe its the interval drinks. Maybe its because the real live actors can see me on my tod? Theatre is supposed to be more dangerous, maybe I want someone to hold my hand.

Artistic, political importance of theatre. Well in Western world its pretty much as a feeder for cinema now. However in more oppressive regimes theatre - in its very small scale local sense, can be the only route of satire, political discussion etc (look at the Czechoslovakia under communism).

― Pete, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hi Sam, the NT Brent is a comedy duo, and they did some quite funny stuff on Radio 4. They have quite a good reputation, although I've never 'seen' any of their stuff.

― Will, Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)