Some Theatre-goers

Dear Readers,

Flagstaff has been good to me, but I’m glad that I’ll be out of here in a few months.

The other night my wife and I almost went to an NAU theatre production of The Bald Soprano and The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco. We have season tickets, (they were pretty cheap- we got the student discount) but uh… we ended up staying home and doing nothing instead. I’m happy with our choice.

I knew what I would find there, at the theatre… all those trendy looking, dressed up people, looking so intelligent, well-mannered, civilized, enlightened, intellectual, gentrified, smiling… liking being seen by like-minded theatre goers, laughing at intelligent humor… Perhaps those theatre goers are fighting off a hidden desperation, an identity crisis, perhaps they’re going to the theatre not because they really like theatre but because they like the idea of liking theatre- they like the social perks of liking theatre- they want to reassure themselves and those around them that they’re the type of people who go see high-brow plays.

And if we would have gone, my social awkwardness would have kicked in. And if I saw people I know, which would surely happen, I’d feel the urge to impress them, and I’d get the sense that they were trying to impress me. I’d laugh at jokes I didn’t really get, and I’d struggle to follow the plot, and I’d read the program for clues of what’s going on, and I’d try to look like I was thinking about the motifs and themes and political implications of the play. I’d probably start to feel better than all the people who didn’t go to the theatre. I’d start to feel better than the people who stayed home and watched TV, or the people who went to the movies and watched a trashy comedy, or a horror flick, or the latest popular talking-animal computer-animated movie.

So I’m glad we stayed home.

I really don’t like absurdist/ existential theatre very much anymore. Some of the absurdist literature I like (I recommend The Stranger by Albert Camus) but reading a book isn’t such a social activity… you typically don’t read in front of other people to impress them… reading is typically a nice private thing. But sometimes when I look around an audience during an intellectual, pretentious play- maybe something by Harold Pinter- and I read the auras of the bodies filling the seats, I sense that the people are wearing a mask, presenting a false front to the world, for social reasons… they want to look cool.

I wonder how many people really like, say, Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, or Rosencratnz and Guildernstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard. How many people really like those types of plays for personal reasons, not because their collegiate liberal arts education told them that they should like it. (“Like” isn’t really the right word. “Appreciate” and “respect” are probably better.) My question is, take away all the extra social perks of going to see a play like Waiting for Godot, and then what’s left? What’s the motivation for paying for an expensive theatre ticket and sitting through a play like that?

I feel that it’s time for me to move on to a different city- a city without as much culture. Ha ha ha. And you know what kind of culture I’m talking about. I’m talking about stuff like this: http://www4.nau.edu/insidenau/bumps/2009/4_22_09/arbor.htm

It’s an article about an abstract sculpture unveiling on campus. From the article:

“The celebration will include an Arbor Day garden party featuring scones, tea and a game of croquet. Attendees are encouraged to play croquet and wear garden party attire: whites, floral patterns, parasols and hats.”

Who goes to those things? I’m getting tired of this snobby-artsy stuff. Here’s a funny blog that sort of has to do with some of the stuff I’m talking about in this blog post: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

I don’t mean to sound ala-quiffert. I’m sure the people who will attend the sculpture unveiling and sip tea and nibble scones are great people. They just seem funny to me, that’s all.

The annoying thing is, I really do like art. I really do like culture. I really do like going to art galleries. I remember recently having a wonderful afternoon at the Phoenix Art Museum, and I remember genuinely enjoying Persepolis, a black and white animated subtitled foreign film… I might miss all the cool artsy things to do in Flagstaff and at NAU. But I guess I sometimes get so aware of the way I look and the way other people look around me, I get self-conscious, and I start thinking about the people who go to artsy plays and events, rather than the art itself.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa