Does the taste of an audience limit the theatre? Was- CANDRAMA and a Question

[Elizabeth Fitzpatrick]

It is my impression - based on just 3 years residence in Canada - that
Canadian directors seriously underestimate their audience's ability to
deal with serious and complex emotional and social questions, and with
"non-naturalistic" forms of staging. The success of certain shows at the
World Stage Festival in Toronto last Summer I think proved that.
My big criticism of Canadian theatre would be that texts and styles seem
to be over-clarified, leaving the audience to do no work at all. That is
one of the reasons I so rarely attend theatre here, yet when I'm in other
countries I go to see as much as possible. I'm not certain where to point
the finger - there are good actors and good and interesting texts, which
are comparable in quality with those of any other country.
Incidentally, the French theatre in Montreal does experiment, and is quite
excellent.


On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Alastair M. Wallis Jarvis wrote:

> Stuart!
>
> Thanks for telling us what's going on there!
>
>         While I think that Lepage is fully aware of the influence of
> television on an audience, I agree wholeheartedly with your perception of
> an audience's tendency to demand realism. It certainly is a challenge to
> find a way of pushing the envelope that does not mean you play to empty
> houses.
>
>         Perhaps a question to throw to everyone on the list would be how
> the audience's expectation and taste limit the work which is done in
> Canadian theatre?
>
>         Is there a responsability to educate an audience? Can such
> questions be raised without necessarily being subject to accusations of
> elitism?
>