Raw, naked humping!
Now that got your attention, didn’t it? Sure, it’s the first words at the beginning of the coluimn, so you’re more prone to have your eye go to them, but I suggest that your eye would go there even if the words weren’t placed there and formatted in ‘small capitals’ with ‘strong’ emphasis. The natural tendency of anyone is for the brain to be attracted by the suggestion even if it’s in tiny letters in the middle of a paragraph, and this is something to use to advantage in marketing of your show. I’ve heard it said from a variety of sources and have seen it proven true often, even if some consider it ‘a sad statement on society’. If you have bums on your poster, you’ll have bums in your seats.
I am sure there are a few people who are thinking ‘here he goes; off on a tear about nudity again…’, but hear me out: look at the recent touring production of The Graduate — why did people go? To see Morgan Fairchild in the buff, that’s why! The same reason people went to see the Blue Room by David Hare; to see Shameless Hussies’ LovePlay (which had both John Murphy uncovered in its promo shots and enough of Peter Hall on stage to prove he’s more than just gifted as an actor); to see A Fabulous Disaster; to see a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Playhouse directed by Guy Sprung in 1987 [ooohhh… those sprightly sprites!]; to see Electric Company’s production of Carmen Aguirre’s Donna Flor and her Two Husbands in 2001, Touchstone’s production of The Family Way by the prolific Kathleen Oliver… (including one of the most enthusiastic moments of ‘sweep-off the table, Baby; we’re doing it now!’ I’ve ever seen on stage)…
I’m not the only one who wants to see a little naughtiness; you probably do too, and so do a majority of people; so what’s wrong with using that as part of your marketing scheme, along with making sure that the title is huge,or the colours are bold, or you get the posters up at Havana, Solly’s Bagels and The Grind, or…? Granted, if you’re doing Man and Superman it can be a little tough to get suggestive in your campaign materials, but even adding an air of mystery and allure of the period is a good thing. raw, naked humping Sell your product to thewidest audience possible, and then appeal to their artistic sensibilities once you have their money and they’re sitting in the theatre. If you tell people that you have a wonderful new translation of a long forgotten play by an un-known Norwegian playwright which conjures up dark shadows of spiritual…
BORING!!!! I’m nodding off already! Sure, those plays are great and I love them and I will rush to see them, but I’m a theatre freak who will rush to see weird stuff like that. But the idea of this stuff it to sell tickets, not lose your shirt to a constantly empty house as you perform ‘really heavy, meaningful art which no-one will probably get’. You’re just taking the position of expecting no-one from ‘the get go’! We want people to come to our shows, so let’s make them want tosee the show in any way that works.
And I suspect that you will now agree that I’ve made my point, because your eyes zoomed right in on the subliminal message in that previous paragraph, didn’t it? If even the R.S.C. do it with a Shakespearean puppet show [poster:above, right], why can’t we do it for everything?
Left: Leda (Ronnie Burkett) in Provenance; the story of a painting (behind), hidden in a brothel by a madam on the verge of madness.
[photo by Trudie Lee; CanStage, January 2004]
Right: Matthew Acheson (top) and Nami Yamamoto in Hiroshima Maiden.
[Photo: Steve J Sherman, NY Times]
And speaking of puppets, what’s with the sudden resurgence of marionettes in the last few years? New York saw Hiroshima Maiden at St. Ann’s Warehouse [photo: left], based on an encounter between a pilot of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and survivors of the blast, which was performed in Bunraku-style. Meanwhile at CanStage, Ronnie Burkett brought Provenance to the stage [photo: far left], as ‘an exploration of what we do to be near, become, possess or destroy beauty.’ The show Mr. Burkett was so popular, it completely sold out its run before they had even finished the first official week, breaking all their previous sales records, including the record for most advance tickets sold prior to a first preview in the history of the Berkeley Street Theatre (set by Tony Kushner’s acclaimed Angels in America). This for a show about a painting which is performed by one man with marionettes that previewed January 9, opened on the 15th of the same month, and then ran until the 6th of March, with a top ticket of $46 (plus tax and service charges)! No, that’s not a hold-over, either. Holding over wasn’t possible because the show was booked to hit Calgary right after, then on to the Barbican Theatre in London, followed by Manchester, Melbourne and Vienna (which is the setting of the story). And people out here in B.C. mostly do not know his name. Odd.
And then there is, closing Saturday night, the guest production at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s venue in Stratford-upon-Avon, The Other Place. As Steve Newman says in his review, this show “is one of the best pieces of Shakespeare the R.S.C. has put on in a very long time… Whether it is worth £16-a-head is another question.” Obviously internationally-acclaimed adult puppeteer Ronnie Burkett is, otherwise he wouldn’t be a Canadian treasure.
But I admit that I haven’t seen Mr. Burkett’s shows, and only knew about him as a result of reading Colin Thomas’ review for the production of Tinka’s New Dress that was at the Cultch about three years ago. He raved about it in a way I have rarely seen him do. Then a woman I was in a show with mentioned him in my car on the way to rehearsal one evening. She grew up in Alberta and had seen several of the shows, and she raved about it in a way I had rarely seen her do. Clearly the man touches people in a way that is not only universally effective, it’s permanently life-altering.
The moral of this is clearly that one must never never think that something that sounds lame is going to be anything close to what we expect. In fact, expectations when you enter the theatre are probably counter-productive no matter what their qualities. Go to everything, expect nothing more than a performance — and that’s all you expect, not ‘good’ or ‘bad’, just ‘a performance’ — and be open to whatsoever you may receive. The actors on stage are being as open as they can be, how can audience members be inconsiderate by not being the same? ‘Oh, the accents suck. Well, I’m just going to sit here and hate it then.’ ‘What an ugly set. When’s intermission?’ ‘If that guy playing a drugged-out street-person suffering withdrawal swears one more time, I’m going home.’
Guess what? In between the foul language, the bad accents, and inside the dimensions of the ugly set is a story being told!!!!! Take from it what you will, but don’t get hung-up on the facets you don’t care for. If we think that a show will suck and not go (and I’m guilty of this as much as the next person), we miss out on seeing something. Whether or not it’s worthwhile seeing is up to us.
So go and see everything, even if there isn’t any nudity on the poster.
Ian Alexander Martin [
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