The Playgoer: Quote of the Day

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Monday, November 01, 2010

Quote of the Day

"One of the things people most dislike about critics is that we traditionally occupy the best seats. Only recently, I got a letter suggesting that my intense enjoyment of the RSC Romeo and Juliet was dictated by where I sat. Had I been in the back row of the balcony of Stratford's Courtyard theatre, I was told, I'd have had difficulty hearing the actors....What we need, of course, are theatres where the gulf between good and bad seats is radically diminished: that will be the ultimate test of the redesigned Royal Shakespeare theatre where they have suspended a fake seat in the circle bar to show how far from the action the back wall once was. But the spaces I really warm to are those such as London's Young Vic or Hampstead theatre, where the quality of the experience doesn't depend on where you sit. Only when we create more democratically designed theatres will we share the same experience and erode the detested notion of critical privilege."

 -Michael Billington, The Guardian.

1 comment:

Leigh Hile said...

As an audience member, I say hurrah. As a director, I say part of the fun is making each seat a unique and memorable experience - even the bad ones.