Ryan Hocking gets ideas from concept theatreA trip to the theatre evokes one of two images. The first is a mandatory, dreary trip with school, where all literary worth of the play is ignored in favour of covertly flicking pieces of paper at your friend, or other such worthwhile activity. The second image is of a pretentious individual who claims actually to enjoy watching the play; perhaps a monocle is involved. It seems that there’s little room for ideas or concepts in either of these. The theatre is a place of leisure – whether forced on us or by our own choice.
It’s easy to imagine the theatre as something waffly or detached from reality, particularly when watching something akin to Wilde’s society plays. Here there are characters that ‘never talk anything but nonsense’, who evade sincerity or issues and may lead the audience member to feel that they too are indulging in ‘Bunburying’. The escape from reality in favour of Wilde’s ‘art for art’s sake’ is an idea in itself, though; the concept of what theatre should be like. Without realising it, the audience are being subjected to an idea. In some form or another, this is present in almost all forms of theatre.
The idea subtly intrudes in naturalistic drama, lurking under the guise of plot, or character development. In Ibsen’s Doll’s House we’re struck more with the breakdown of Helmer and Nora’s marriage than with the idea of the need for female equality inherent in the play’s climax. The concept is sneaked into the play’s dialogue so seamlessly that it very rarely transcends the action or jumps out at the audience.
If concepts are a subtle salad dressing in naturalist drama, they seem to be the chilli sauce on Stoppard’s theatre. Stoppard’s characters often launch into rants about abstract concepts, and we find ourselves wondering why on earth there’s a short treatise on sub-atomic physics in the middle of a play about spies (perhaps because physicists are such sneaky types). We certainly notice the idea’s presence, because it sticks out like a sore thumb, but not its significance. The concept tries so hard to come to our attention, that we end up dismissing it – just like a lecturer trying to be funny.
However overt or covert they may be, ideas are always being waved in the face of audiences – whatever style of theatre they may be watching. Considering the radicalisation and politicisation of drama in the 20th century, audiences could be forgiven for trepidation during Beckett’s Waiting for Godot when Vladimir asks Estragon, ‘How’s the carrot?’ Despite what Estragon may reply, nothing in theatre is ever ‘just a carrot’.
