Being Present: Why Theatre Is Still Vital

As part of their Go To A Play Day campaign, we’ve been asked by MVC to talk about why theatre is so vital to us.

The Internet has changed us, individuals, society, Britain, the world. An increasing number of our cultural activities take place in relation to a screen. Our experience is mediated through glass and plastic, we aren’t present, the experience happened somewhere else and somewhen else.

Theatre, like other forms of live performance are an opportunity to have a communal/shared experience with others. It has been a part of human culture since the theatrical performances at the Festival Dionysus in Greece. The Internet has changed this. We no longer sit in an audience, we sit at home, surrounded and distracted by the buzz of phones and the ping of emails, staring into a screen to experience the world.

I am not Ned Ludd, this is not Fight Club, I’m not anti-Internet, I’m really very glad of it. I don’t want to get rid of it. It’s amazing.

But the Internet encourages us to experience life through the screen. We converse, we arrange, we chat, we learn, we love – through the shiny screen of a computer connected to the Internet.

As the Internet slowly becomes as essential to our human existence as water and shelter, we need the balance that being present with other people brings.

Theatre is the greatest opportunity to be present in the presence of others. That’s what makes theatre vital. That’s why you should go and see a play on Go To A Play Day, the 24th April.