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Small thread on random reflections after giving workshop on violence in British theatre, looking at Lear, Kane (Blasted), Pinter (Betrayal) and @StephensSimon (Motortown)
@StephensSimon Theatre is a spell
@StephensSimon The moment that the audience applauds that spell is broken
@StephensSimon The most blissful moment in theatre is that which exists between the last line has been spoken and the moment that the audience applauds - when the spell refuses to be broken
@StephensSimon The most blissful moment in theatre is that which exists between the last line has been spoken and the moment that the audience applauds - when the spell refuses to be broken
@StephensSimon The writer is a shaman who uses her/ his tools to change her/ his audience
@StephensSimon Theatre is a journey that the writer invites the audience to go on with her/him
@StephensSimon When the audience member leaves the theatre, they will not be the same person, or in the same place, as they were when they entered the theatre - how far they go/ where they go - this is the work of the playwright
@StephensSimon The playwright has an obligation to explore her/his imaginative boundaries, in order to permit the audience to explore theirs
@StephensSimon The theatre is a space where things are articulated that cannot be said within the city walls
@StephensSimon The theatre is a safe space in an unsafe world/ The theatre is an unsafe space in a safe world
@StephensSimon An audience longs for violence, even when it knows this is wrong, because violence is the dissipation of tension, and real tension is insufferable
@StephensSimon There is a grotesque satisfaction in a narrative reaching an inevitable end, no matter how terrible that end might be
