THE FUTURE OF THEATRE
Theatre has been, in all the times, the first big mass entertainment art. Since the Greek culture, the Romans, and finally to the rest of Europe.
In the S.XV and XVI theatre was a cheap form to forget the life problems the people had. Poor people could go to watch a play and pass the time with happiness.
Not only in Britain, but in other countries like Spain, theatre was a big mass show. At first, people only wanted to watch funny stories, to laugh.
Then, the authors started to express his feelings and ideas, not only happiness and jokes. Some authors suffered the consequences of expressing his ideas or doing critics to his time society. In Ireland, theatre was an important weapon in the nationalism fight.
Theatre continued attracting people since the arrival of cinema.
The arrival of cinema affected theatre in all the world, but the low-quality films(without sound, black and white) allowed theatre enduring as the most followed by people.
At the S.XX, the decadence of theatre(not in the quality of the plots, but in the number of audience) was bigger with the improvement of the cinema, and people started to leave the theaters and going to the cinemas.
Actually, in countries like England, theatre continues having a great importance, mainly in London, but it has lost his battle with cinema: It is cheaper, the stories it narrates are spectacular, plenty of effects, involving sound, etc…
Here in Spain, theatre is so devaluated, cinema has won the fight, and the audience comparisons are unbalanced.
Prices are normally expensive, more than cinema(this is an important factor).
Talking about the future, in some places theatre may even disappear(little towns, etc..), and it seems not to be a real effective solution, like cheaper prices, bargains. To the cinema, we have to add a new competitor, T.V. “Everybody” have a television at home, and TV series are so attractive, also films, and anything is better that staying at home, warm, eating something and watching T.V.
With all these disadvantages, theatre seems to be damned to disappear, but I don’t think it is going to happen in a few years.
I hope it never happens, because cinema and TV never will be able to give the audience a real and on live representation, the main weapon theatre has.