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It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
It looks like a new twist, ff, which may mean the possibility of a compromise of sorts; a compromise between 'traditionalists' - no forgiveness, and 'modernists' - no harm meant. " If I grant you no mobile phones, what will you grant me?" ( Put it another way - what will it take to let us march with bands and banners down your street?)
Today on Lunchtime Concert there was good communication between performers and presenter, and the audience who clearly understood that there was to be no applause between the songs of each grouping.. Of course the audience was probably 'traditionalist' to begin with, but isn't there always the odd one or two! Not a whimper today - if that's what is required. And how did Sara Mohr-Pietsch achieve that result? Aha! -
Interesting, Padraig, that I've always wondered why there was so much fuss about classical concert audiences expecting quiet attention and yet in the theatre that was exactly what happened. As for going to Shakespeare to see Martin Freeman(who he?
) or David Tennant and treating them like pop stars, I remember when tennis spectators (not to mention cricket) were there to concentrate on the match until youngsters (usually girls) started going to see the stars with nice legs and screaming as they do for pop idols.
But: "Theatre critic Matt Trueman says it was a case of new people coming to the theatre who maybe "weren't familiar" with traditional etiquette, but should be encouraged rather than turned away." That doesn't actually imply that people would be miffed it they realised that they should watch quietly.
The big question is: Why should one suppose that people who go to the theatre to see the TV star will ever become regular theatre-goers or be interested in Shakespeare (or those who go to see Doctor Who will become regular Proms-goers?). Is the best we can manage: 'Well, they might do'?, and because 'they might do' their anti-social behaviour has to be tolerated?
(I tied this up with the news article about kids taking 'selfies' and getting in the way of the Tour de France cyclists)It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I do not recall any clapping during Tennant's Hamlet - this is a very new thing or perhaps judging by how the groundlings were said to have behaved a very old thing.Comment
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Something very odd about the photograph - where's the fag smoke?Originally posted by french frank View PostComment
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I'm reminded, looking at that 1935 photograph, of the times I've sat in the audience at the end of a concert item. Sometimes there's the fellow who bursts in before the last note has died; at other times there's a marked silence, glances are exchanged - is that it? - do they look as if they're finished? -is it safe to applaud now?. Sometimes I could be that fellow, but wouldn't dream of it, and at other times I'm just as baffled as everyone else. You could say what an appreciative and sensitive audience we are to let that pregnant silence linger. It certainly is a wonderful moment when that is genuinely the case. Like the unexpected occasion at the cinema - was it 1955?- when Shakespeare's Richard III with Olivier was playing, and the audience, with a large proportion of summer holiday pupils not altogether silent during the performance, instead of rushing for the exits when the film ended, burst into sustained applause. There was appreciation for you. You could tell that to t'young folk now - and they wouldn't believe you!
This was in reply to my own post which was the last one when I looked, not a blanket ignoring of others'.Comment
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Well spotted, Floss.Originally posted by Flosshilde View Post
Yes, it's not a theatre audience, is it? It's a file pic of a Men Only meeting of some sort: AGM of the Freemasons of GB. There are one or two that might be women, but so few they probably aren't.
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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The inaugural meeting of the Prostate Society of GB?Originally posted by french frank View Post
Or perhaps it was a society to lobby for all parts in Shakespeare to be played once again by males.
Or to decide how many toilets the 'littles ladies" should be allowed ('one' seemed to be about right).Last edited by Pabmusic; 08-07-14, 06:51.Comment
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Who says they're 'waiting to applaud', anyway?Comment
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A picture is worth 1,000 stories.Originally posted by jean View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I reckon I can make out seven who appear to be female.Comment
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If the picture doesn't in fact show what it claims to show, it's not worth anything.Originally posted by french frank View PostComment
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They'll applaud for sure when the MD drops the Shoe Salesman of the Year Cup and his scantily clad secretary bends over to pick it upOriginally posted by jean View PostComment
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Here's a genuine 1935 theatre audience:
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