Straight plays “bore everyone” says Graham Norton

by Site Admin on Friday, April 11, 2008

Celebrity, National, STAC productions, Television

In upcoming STAC production, The Blue Room by David Hare, the character of the Model (Emily Portsmouth) has only been to the theatre to see Phantom of the Opera and says “I only like funny things”. The character of the Playwright (Bob Churchill) asks her, “Have you never been to see a proper play? A serious play I mean?”

Their discussion mirrors the argument between Graham Norton and Kevin Spacey. Spacey has attacked the BBC for airing long-running talent shows (How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, and I’d Do Anything) which seem to be serial adverts for Andrew Lloyd Webber and various musicals. Norton has defended the BBC as follows:

Maybe [Spacey] should put a musical on and people will go to see that. … I think it would be very bad to do a reality show casting the lead of The Iceman Cometh, called ‘We’d Bore Everyone’.

It is true that it’s harder to whip up interest for “straight” plays. Does this tell us more about “boring” plays, or about the image of straight theatre, or about audience culture? Television is increasingly filmed in quicker and quicker scenes, with the camera always moving. Can modern audiences simply not cope with more involved drama, if it is stripped of attention-stirring frequent scene changes and without the added glitz of familiar music?

Well… at least The Blue Room has a jazz trio accompanying the action!

For an old-skool night out at a “proper” play, The Blue Room is showing from 29th April until the 3rd May. Worcester Live box office: 01905 611 427.

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