The Great Acting Blog: “Theatre Is A Secret Garden No More”
I was at the theatre recently and just before the play was about to start a recorded voice came over the tannoy reminding us to turn our mobile phones off. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but this voice possessed a certain touchiness, it was as though we were being bullied into line – the voice inferred that the audience was somehow a threat to the theatre and it’s sense of institutional propriety. Of course I don’t want anybody’s phone to ring during the show, but guess what? If it does, it’s not the end of the world. Nobody lets their phone ring deliberately, it’s just a mistake when it happens, I’m certainly not going to allow it to ruin my enjoyment. The hostile nature of the tannoy message however, had caused my relaxed-anticipation of the show to dissipate, replacing it with irritation. I was bugged, my human instinct to kick against authority had been aroused, I wanted to get my money back and head to the nearest bar to get drunk.
The theatre was always supposed to be about communication and communion between the audience and the play. It was a place we went to in order to be delighted, astonished, thrilled, inspired, and yes, to be entertained. It was a secret garden which we entered into and gladly allowed ourselves to be entranced by it’s magic. It was a place we went to in order to shake-off the compromises and the reasonableness and the drudgery of everyday living.
The touchy tannoy message is a dereliction of the theatre’s duty. It tells us that we are no longer visitors to a secret garden, but merely units of profit to be shunted through and kept in line. By harassing us with it’s own quotidian concerns, by putting it’s rules and regulations centre stage, the theatre forces upon us the very drudgery we paid good money to get away from.
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