Time to re-imagine theatre?

The Product

What about the product—the plays, the dance pieces, all the other work that will be produced once the pandemic is over? Will it change? Will we want it to change? Should it change?

There were many theatre closures because of plague during the 17th century. Most were quite short and had no effect except on those whose livelihoods were affected, although we are told that Shakespeare took the opportunity offered by one such closure to write King Lear but there’s no evidence to support (or deny) this. In fact, it’s probably an urban legend about which we’ll certainly never know the truth.

However, after the long (18 years) closure of the playhouses by Cromwell and the Puritans, there were major changes: women actors and playwrights were accepted for the first time in British theatre, and a totally new theatrical form, the satirical and often risqué Comedy of Manners (also known as Restoration Comedy) emerged.

I don’t think there can be much doubt that this new form was a reaction against the dullness and repression of the Puritan years—but that was after 18 years. Would a year (or more) of COVID provoke a similar reaction? It’s possible…

Will a new form emerge after COVID? Who knows? What we do know is that many, many people want to get back to the status quo ante, the way things were. This is particularly true, I think, of musical theatre fans who flock to performances, whether of Showboat, Brigadoon, West Side Story, Les Mis, Cabaret, Rent, The Greatest Showman or any show from any period. And there will always be a market hungry for the classics, whether Shakespeare or Ibsen, Jonson or Pinter.

But what of new work? Will there be new directions? Monologues have become a big thing during the pandemic, filmed and shown online or as an audio recording. And there are small-cast plays being filmed in a socially distanced manner in a theatre or on location, and some shot in each individual actor’s home (often on a mobile phone) and edited together later.

Will we be sick to death of the restrictions of these formats? Will we want to fling away the doom and gloom of impending illness and death? Will we want to explode onto stages full of life and colour?

Or will the monologues and audio and filmed work find a place within the new theatrical mainstream? Will we incorporate them into the new theatre?

Again, who knows? But the longer lockdowns / restrictions / curfews and the like last, the more likely a reaction against this austere entertainment is to happen. There’ll certainly be a return to huge stadium rock concerts. Will there be raves in empty warehouses? An increase in outdoor festivals?

Of course there will. Music enthusiasts will demand it.

Will theatre welcome back the Monsterists?

Wouldn’t that be fun? But sadly, the chances of that are slim. And that takes us back to the eternal problem which faces theatre—money!

Who can afford large casts nowadays?

Well, there’s the RSC, the National…

Hang on! Isn’t that where we came in?