THEATRE OF THE FUTURE

Nowadays theatre is an art which is dissapearing. Cinema, music, are becoming more powered. These arts give more money than theatre because they receive more valious economic sources, are more divulged and they are supposed to have a wider range of followers. Probably theatre is linked to a concrete kind of people, related to culture. This is not true because some kind of theatre does not imply a knowledge to understand it. Theatre nowadays is changing continuously, but sometimes not in the correct direction. Society wants more and more plays, TV and music in which they can see themselves identified. Theatre is being introduced in TV which is a really important step in order to revive and bring theatre nearer to public. This introduction can be seen for example in programmes such as “El club de la comedia”(1) or “Paramount comedy”(2), with some improvisations on humour and actual topics. This trying to take theatre out from theatres can also be seen in what is known as “Circuito Café Teatro” (3). This englobes a group of cafes and pubs in which once a week an actor or a group of them represent short pieces or a complete play, generally characterised by humour and improvisation, what is known as stand-up comedy. This is a good way to get theatre closer to young people and to open frontiers and recycle theatre. This could be seen by some followers of theatre as a discalification of actors or of genre but from my point of view it is a really good action which makes theatre different, less formal and also cheaper. Probably most people in my generation have not gone to the theatre ever since they went to school. This kind of activities are not “sold” as theatre. Although it sounds strange, sometimes the word theatre scares away young people. If they hear theatre and they hear improvisation show probably they would feel more attracted to the second one. This does not have any scientific explanation but I am sure that this little difference attracts audience or scares it away.

For the last two decades we have been able to observe the general tendence in theatre to overcome its own usual limits. We can find a good example of this in Harold Pinter. He wrote some plays that adapted to radio innovating and breaking with the traditional view of theatre. With this creations people could enjoy Pinter’s theatre from their homes or where else out of theatres, so we can say that this is just an example of changing and evolution in theatre that probably gave clues to the next generations. (4) (5)

As time goes by, theatre is changing and adding new methods to its characterisics. A clear example of this is “La Fura dels Baus”. This company works with a huge range of stage resources like music, visual effects, acrobats, fireworks ... This involves the public in the play and also creates a surprising environment in which audience is identified and represented by actors. They express by really different ways, they also use regularly audiovisual resources to support the representation and also they are used to work in open spaces, not the usual theatres, such as sport centres, bullrings, town squares, ... (6) This group of actors try to grip people to their representation and make them involved so that they feel like actors in their own play. It is obvious that there is a huge difference between these plays and the generalised notion of theatre and this shows how theatre has developed through years.

The future of theatre will therefore come as a result of taking out the play from the physical boundaries that a theatre hall has traditionally drawn about it. Therefore, we will easily find theatre represented outside this traditional stage, theatre invading what were usually conceived as completely different means of entertainment. Moreover, the notion of theatre will comprise a wider range of possibilities in order to entertain the public and transfer what is written on the original script. This is, we will see theatre scripts in which the dialogues of the characters will have the same importance as other elements, which were usually considered as not-theatrical or peripherical to theatre. Because of this we might assert that actually the theatre of the future will be theatre outside the theatre.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) http://www.elclubdelacomedia.com/

(2) http://www.paramountcomedy.es/comicos/comicos.htm

(3) http://circuitocafeteatro.com/

(4) http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth01G24K343812605467

(5) http://www.haroldpinter.org

(6) http://www.lafura.com/index01.html

Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Aina García Coll
Universitat de València Press
aigari@alumni.uv.es