I'm coming to the end of my degree in Theatre Studies and I've learned a lot of theory and a little technical pizzazz but I'm getting this feeling that all is not well in the world of theatre and I'll tell you why.
The predominant form of contemporary theatre here in Britain is often described as 'post-dramatic' or 'postmodern' and doesn't conform to the ideas of story, characters, emotions etc. but prefers to look at things from a more conceptual angle. The acting is sometimes non-existent, significance is placed on minor actions or topics, the content is so self-referential and often obsessed with irrelevant detail and subject matter tends to err towards academic and over-done topics. Bluntly put, unless you have spent three years studying this shit then you have about as much hope of understanding it as I do getting a decent job based on this degree. As for actually enjoying one of these shows, you may as well sleep through them because entertainment is the last thing on the minds of modern performers, preferring to use you as some captive test subject for their ideas. After every show I see I often wonder, 'would anyone go to the theatre any more?'
And so I ask the Escapist. If it wasn't a big commercial number like (bleuch) High School Musical or (triple bleuch with streaks of blood) Cats, Why would you go to the theatre and what would you want to see?
The predominant form of contemporary theatre here in Britain is often described as 'post-dramatic' or 'postmodern' and doesn't conform to the ideas of story, characters, emotions etc. but prefers to look at things from a more conceptual angle. The acting is sometimes non-existent, significance is placed on minor actions or topics, the content is so self-referential and often obsessed with irrelevant detail and subject matter tends to err towards academic and over-done topics. Bluntly put, unless you have spent three years studying this shit then you have about as much hope of understanding it as I do getting a decent job based on this degree. As for actually enjoying one of these shows, you may as well sleep through them because entertainment is the last thing on the minds of modern performers, preferring to use you as some captive test subject for their ideas. After every show I see I often wonder, 'would anyone go to the theatre any more?'
And so I ask the Escapist. If it wasn't a big commercial number like (bleuch) High School Musical or (triple bleuch with streaks of blood) Cats, Why would you go to the theatre and what would you want to see?
Plus, the theatre in our home town back home I was a member of, so I was hard to go without knowing the entire cast and so not being able to be completely objective. I was only about an hours drive from Stratford-Upon-Avon though, and the RSC, but gettin there was a struggle without being able to drive and limits on train times.
