1st February, 2009 - 10 Things I Love About Theatre #9

The ninth thing I love about the theatre are Little Moments of Magic. This doesn’t just relate to shows that I do, but to any production. It doesn’t always happen, but occasionally in a show there is some moment (or if you are lucky moments) where a happy series of coincidences and effort produces a moment where the hairs on the audience’s collective necks stand to attention.

Sometimes this is nearly unavoidabl because of brilliant writing like in Liz Lochhead’s “Perfect Days” when Barbs’ mum re-appears briefly as a ghost. And sometimes it’s more studied and contrived by the backstage team – lights softening at the right moment, or a pyroflash going off, or a gunshot echoing through the theatre.

The point is that there ought to be moments in a play that work only in a theatre. Things that would be meaningless on the radio or the telly or in a novel. Moments that make the audience glad that they made the effort to get out the house.