Change is coming! The Curtain Cannot Fall

Hi and welcome back. Today I want to share with you, perhaps even discuss with you, one question that has been on mind for quite sometime. Because I am aware, the way we are consuming live performances, is changing!

For the past couple years, as I have been grieving the loss of someone very important to me, I started to seek shelter in things I knew can ground me. As I am faced with the unknown on multiple occasions, I keep myself steady by going back to what I know.

But it was only during the lockdown, when everything was moving at a slower pace, amidst the pandemic and high anxiety levels, that I realised how much I missed theatre. It was when Danny Boyle's Frankestein starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in alternating roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature was on, on 30th April, which transported me to a delightful trip down memory lane to my university days, that left me thinking. 

Bear with me a little longer, if you'd be so kind, to explain before delving into the question.

Thursday nights, during the lockdown, have become synonymous with NT Live at Home* for me. Coffee at the ready and tuned in on Youtube at 20:00 sharp to join in the virtual salute to the front liners. National Theatre in the UK, like many other companies, including local ones, joined their efforts and brought the theatre to our homes; by either streaming or releasing recordings of their productions on their respective social media platforms, in attempt to raise money for the artistic scene while creating awareness and keeping company for those who sought it. 

One Man, Two Guvnors was the first performance to be made available on 2nd April for a week, followed by a total of 16 brilliant productions, the last made available on 16th July; leaving me longing for more. Albeit  the lockdown having been lifted and the 'new normal' becoming more familiar and mundane, the virus is still very active and many industries remain closed (in some countries theatres and cinemas have been opened but with restrictions - in my country, theatres remain closed and large events are prohibited) . 

In light of this, one question kept bugging me.

For the past decade the media spectrum expanded to a point where the definition of physical space, audience and performer were challenged. YouTube is a clear example. Anywhere can become the backdrop, anyone can take 'centre stage' while earning money and the audience doesn't pay a dime-ish. TV Hosts have taken their programmes to YouTube. Actors have graced us with a routine check in, such as Sir Patrick Stewart who checked in on his social media accounts on a daily basis to read a Shakespearean Sonnet a day.

The Arts have, once again, provided the much needed distraction and alienation from the horrors of the current situation we are living in. Many have tuned in to the various streaming of productions, which were welcomed as proven by this post. 

Therefore, is digitalising the theatre the solution we need to reach more people and generate more revenue? 

NT, for example, has been recording their performances for the purposes of releasing them in selective cinemas in the UK and around the world in real time well before the pandemic broke. 

The notion of space has been challenged already. Even the delivery of movies has been challenged and adapted to our current trends with the rising popularity of Streaming Services which also allow interacting productions. 

Therefore, why cannot the digitalisation of theatre be a permanent option? It could be organised against a pay per view subscription just like we pay for Streaming Service Providers. I would pay for such subscription if I could. 

By bringing theatre into our the comfort of our homes, an equal opportunity was given: to those who attend irrelevant of the frequency; to those who wished they can go; to students who struggle with certain texts in their studies; and to those who never attended.

However I understand this can be permanent option but cannot be a permanent solution. For one simple reason.

Nothing compares to the relationship between the actor and the audience. There is something organic, raw and intimate in that transaction.  Any involvement from the audience is enough to fuel the performer with energy, making each performance unique. The audience has full control on what to absorb. This interaction shatters the invisible 4th wall - completely, even if the performance itself has the 4th wall. 

Granted that any shared experience carries its weight - like cinema for example. But the performance is not experienced live, the transaction is limited to a relationship between audience members. And that has been challenged as well through the years: from bringing cinema to the home, to transmedia, to interactive productions.

Irrelevant of the medium, when the performance is filmed, automatically a fourth wall is created. Another filter is added, that otherwise you would not have during a live performance--the action is given to you through the lens controlled by someone else; in many cases the director's vision.

Ultimately, I don't think that it is worth it to permanently sacrifice that relationship, which is what makes the theatre experience unique. The way we consume theatre and live performances is being challenged. I firmly believe that digitalising theatre can be a permanent option but temporary solution. I am humbled to be alive to see these changes unraveling. Because change is imminent.

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