“Why, in a world where we value new technology, in a world where we can watch TV and movies on handheld devices, would someone go to the theatre? Why keep doing it?”
Each performance of a play is ingrained in the present. You are sitting there as it unfolds. A TV show or movie could have been filmed months or even many years ago.
Each performance is unique in theatre; there’s entirely different casts, different set designs… Even different nights of the same run can be different. Something small, like the lead actress being out sick one night and her understudy finally getting her chance to shine. Or maybe a joke falls flat one night, but has the audience in stiches the next. If you’re watching Lord of the Rings for the 5th time, it’s still the same movie. Maybe you notice something you missed before, like a pair of birds flying out of the eye of a statue… but nothing’s really changed.
There are no do-overs in theatre: if someone messes up by missing an entrance or stumbling over a line, nobody’s there to yell “CUT!” and tell everyone to take it back to the top of page 10. With film, there are hundreds of re-do’s over the course of shooting, and bunches of little edits to make sure the movie looks even more perfect.
For the most part, TV and film stars are beautiful. Some are movie stars solely because of how pretty they are, regardless of whether or not they can act. Stage actors can be ugly, because nobody is sitting down in that theatre to judge whether or not an actress is a natural blonde, or how big her boobs are. They are there to see her act. There are many people who shine onstage that no one in movies would touch with a ten foot pole. Yet movie actors are constantly being put into theatre productions to sell more tickets. While some of them do splendidly, there are many who flounder. Because theatre isn’t the movies. It’s not easy like that.
So why do people go to the theatre? They seek to connect with something. They want to see characters unfold before their eyes. They want to feel as if they’re looking in on secret moments in someone’s life. If the audience went onstage, they could actually touch the people, the furniture, the mailbox with Krogstad’s letter in it.
Have you ever seen a movie adaptation of a play that is filmed like it is onstage? Not literally onstage, I’m talking about a mostly stationary camera, little to no change in scenery, bombastic actors, costumes that hurt the eyes…
Have you ever wondered why they suck? It’s because there are none of the exciting camera angles that make a movie a movie. Because it is the bigness of the stage brought to you on a flat screen, so the costumes and actors stand out in a bad way, like they got stuck in the wrong party.
(This is part of my theory on why John Malkovitch sucks in every movie he’s been in, Being John Malkovitch non-withstanding. But that’s a post for a different day…)
Conversely, because the movie is filmed like it’s onstage, people unwittingly search for the connection that the theatre gives. They reach out, and are met with that flat screen.
In conclusion:
Movies, for the most part, are perfect.
Theatre sweats. Theatre breathes. Theatre cries.
Theatre is flawed. Human.
<3 Jessie
P.S. Here is an example of a movie adaptation of a play done right. Richard III, by Shakespeare:
And here is an example of John Malkovitch doing it wrong, in The Glass Menagerie (while everyone else does it right, so he doesn’t even have an excuse):
