Theatre and other live performances

[Annabella]

We are going to watch here (well, I am with scattered friends) I love Tamsin G.

Did you watch it Marth? I watched it last night and absolutely loved it - I also love Tamsin G.
Last year I went to 12th Night performance at the Yoing Vic and it was a very modern and fabulous production but this one was just that bit more polished - fantastic!

[wendy james]

Not Marth, but I watched it last night with the girls who were transfixed! Tamsin G was amazing, wasn’t she? I really liked Tamara Lawrance too.

[H1ppychick]

I’m watching now - I’d started it in the tablet but am now on the TV so I’m watching the first few minutes again.

[Annabella]

At the time it was on stage - Wendy - I tried to get tickets but it was sold out - so it was absolutely marvellous to see it online. I hope agree about Tamson G but actually though the whole cast was wonderful

[H1ppychick]

I loved Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

[Marth]

I did watch, it was excellent, I thought.

[Lily]

Did anyone catch Wise Children by Emma Rice? It's on iPlayer if not.

[Flora Poste]

Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust) back at the Bridge Theatre .

Have you heard anything about whether this is going ahead or not? We've got tickets towards the end of the run, but given it starts in July it's not looking likely, is it?

[Ella77]

I haven’t, no. I don’t think I’d be comfortable going by then. Gutting.

[Morganna]

How are people finding watching performances online?

It doesn't really work for me. I much prefer the atmosphere of going to the theatre, even allowing for the irritations of Other People. I find that I don't concentrate as much when it's on a screen, and the acting seems stilted, which is just because the production is (obviously) different from a film or TV drama.

I guess that if it becomes the so-called 'new normal' I'll get used to it, and I do plan to try really hard to support 'live' arts as far as I can, but it's just not the same, is it? I don't know how it could be made better without basically morphing into a TV drama, though.

I did really enjoy the Front Room Festival, though. It worked really well, even though folk festivals have a great atmosphere live, and it was good to be able to use my own private non-pongy loo . If they do it again next year, I assume they will have to charge, but that's something I would definitely pay for.

I also like a local poetry open mic thing that has now moved to Zoom. It's still very amateur, but that's fine, as it makes it more friendly. They are planning to keep the online presence even when/if it can go back to live one day. It does make things more inclusive.

I have had a couple of surveys to complete for theatre venues - basically the ones I have tickets waiting for when things re-open. One is a big mainstream one, and the other a semi-amateur venue, but both are really thinking hard about how to keep themselves and their audiences going after Covid, and inclusivity is high on the agenda of both. It could turn out to be a 'silver lining' thing, if opportunities are taken.

[Flora Poste]

I've always quite enjoyed the cinema casts (ballet and theatre) as I think what you lose out in atmosphere can be gained in getting good close ups of the action, especially for dance, plus there is a certain element of atmosphere by going to the cinema anyway. I'm not as keen on watching at home for the same reasons you give.

I did love the Met Opera Gala though - it was brilliant, really well done and very emotional at times and actually a really good way to put voices to some names I'd heard of but never seen. It was also 4 hours long and I only had a couple of hours to watch, so quite enjoyed being able to FF through bits I didn't enjoy as much

[Morganna]

The cinema ones have the advantage that you go out, and it is more of an occasion, as you say. I've enjoyed the ones I have seen in an actual cinema. I have a couple of DVDs of live performances (the Duchess of Malfi and Dr Faustus, fact fans), and I was disappointed in them, as whereas the performances are very good, it's just not the same watching on the tv in your own house.

I haven't seen opera (in the cinema or at home), but I think that might be something that would benefit from being stopped and started. I'm an ignoramus where opera is concerned, and maybe seeing it in smaller chunks would be good for the likes of me. There will be pros and cons with all of it, I suppose.

[H1ppychick]

I like the cinema showings because you get to see a lot of behind the scenes stuff and cast interviews before curtain up and in the intermissions. I don’t think the live stuff that’s available at the moment is set up that way, so it loses some of the attraction.

[Rebel Pebble]

There will be pros and cons with all of it, I suppose.

The main con being theatres can't survive doing performances this way. This article dates from late April:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/ ... s-covid-19

Since then the Nuffield theatres in Southampton have gone into administration.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/ ... oronavirus

And this article is more recent. Not behind the paywall.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lock ... 9a7ce2abc5

[Morganna]

Will pay per view be enough to keep things going, Rebs? I know it will be difficult in the short term, as there is a hurdle to get over before people will pay for online things (which I have issues with on a lot of levels). But if there is no alternative, people will have to take it or leave it, and in theory the audiences could be a lot larger than for a one-off live performance. If social distancing means that fewer people can be in the audiences, watching a screening could be the only option. Rather than sell recordings, the performances could be made available for a limited period, so that there is a sense of occasion and an impetus to watch while you can.

H1ppy's point that things would have to change to make it commercially viable is a good one. There will be a learning curve in the way that lecturers are having to learn to adapt learning materials for online teaching, and it won't be as good as it could be overnight. But when it gets going, who knows? And if there is a period when we can visit one another but not meet in groups as large as audiences, maybe people will start inviting people round to watch a play 'live' at home. It's the sort of thing my film group would do, and be willing to pay for.

[Rebel Pebble]

I doubt it. I mean, I'm no theatre accountant, but the NT article says:

But while Norris was heartened by the uptake, it is not an economically sustainable model for the medium; filming live productions is expensive and all the artists involved agreed to share their work for free, he said.

I suspect the problem with pay per view would be that people's expectations of what they should pay for something like that have been defined by films to rent on Amazon etc. A group of 5 people going to the theatre = £100+ in revenue, plus sales of interval drinks, programmes etc. A group of 5 people sitting down to watch a play in their living room might expect to pay, what? a tenner, max, to watch it. Plus there's the problem that people have identified in this thread - the live shows broadcast at cinemas had atmosphere because they were recorded with an audience. That wouldn't happen with new productions.

And then there would how you pay the performers and backstage, crew, wardrobe, admin etc, and what for? A show running 6 days a week is straightforward - everyone's on a weekly wage. It takes at least 3 weeks of rehearsal plus weeks of planning before that to put on an average sized production. All of that for a "live" recorded performance that you only do once. So then how do you pay people and how does it replace the income they would have had from a live show running for weeks or months? In the end what you'd be doing would be closer to making a film than doing live theatre, and fIlm-making is funded and run very very differently, leading to very different (less) artistic freedom and variety of output.

[Morganna]

The atmosphere would be very difficult to recreate, I agree. I can't see it being an actual replacement, but if (say) a theatre that once held 500 people could only now take 100 it would still be an audience, and the show could run for as long as before (or even longer if the demand to see it live continued). Meanwhile, whilst the show was running in the theatre, those who would have gone pre-Covid plus those who couldn't, for reasons of geography, accessibility, cost etc could see it by streaming, or however it was packaged. Potentially that could be a much bigger audience than it would have had in the first place. When the show closed, no more streaming, so it wouldn't be the same as a film that could be watched over and over for a one-off charge, or a Netflix subscription.

I would like to go to the theatre far more often than I do, but there are a number of reasons why I don't. Firstly there are not many theatres near me. Secondly, the public transport issues here are such that I would often have to leave before the end of a performance to get the last bus home. Tickets sell out very quickly, so I have often missed out on seeing something I would have found a way to get to see if I could have got a ticket. Logistics, such as the fact that if a show has a long run it means that weeks can go by when there is very little choice of what to see, and when there is a change I might be away, or otherwise unable to go, so it can be months between realistic opportunities to see anything I want to. Then there are those with disabilities, childcare issues, all the usual reasons why many people are unable to access things.

All of that would be addressed if performances were streamed in a way that made them attractive to audiences (however that turns out to be).

The backstage (etc) problem is still an issue, and I don't know the answer to that. I agree that there will have to be a shift in thinking before people will pay. I know people who won't pay for apps, e-books, music, knitting patterns, anything that doesn't give them a tangible 'thing', as they see it as paying for nothing. I absolutely disagree, and see it as expecting people to work for nothing, but that way of thinking is ingrained in some, and would have to be changed, but that would be possible, I think. Lots of things will be going online because of the virus, so I think that shift will happen anyway. It won't be the same, I completely agree, but nor will so many things.

[Ella77]

Flora, this has just arrived.

FF63E0D8-BBEA-4B13-9AB3-99D6EE7EC92F.jpeg

I’m happy with the first suggestion (do nothing), but does it sound to you like they’d prefer us to convert it to a general credit with the theatre? I’d also be happy to do that if it would help.

[Flora Poste]

I read it that holding the booking is what they would like us to do, but if we don't want to do that for any reason, then a credit is better for them than a refund.

[Ella77]

Cool, I will leave it as it is, then. I really like that theatre.