Coming up is World Theatre Day, and things are hotting up for those who want theatre to be able to celebrate. For those who celebrate theatre, however, every new activity is just that. I find veterans are being given honurs and asked to give messages, and all sorts of issues are being taken up to be hosted with theatre.
I've been asked to do a piece for the New Indian Express Sunday magazine. It will appear the day before the Day. I guess the only thing to celebrate is that all types of theatre are welcome nowadays, from the pure to the complicatedly mixed. I saw a modern dance peformance a couple of days ago where theatrical elements are used to create minimal effects that are, nevertheless, stunning at times. I guess everything becomes or forms or is moulded into theatre.
An expression that is communicated and caught becomes theatre. That's why the range is tremendous, right from the spare serious monologue to the hare-brained extravaganza that manages to fit in everything. Nothing is not theatre if you can get an audience to watch.
That's the tragedy and joy of theatre. So on that Day, let's not split hairs, let's welcome the fact that people are interested (compared to some years ago), people are experimenting, and there is the possibility that an audience can be fired up to watch right through that range. Interest is all, and it percolates from the performers to the audience.
I have to be wooed to watch, and then I'm on my own. And the more I contribute to the experience while watching---in terms of deductions, assimilations and conclusions--- the more theatre has triumphed.
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