Is Football better than theatre? 

Convener(s): Eleanor Lloyd         

Participants: Jamie, Danny, Darren, Mathilde, Mary, Aaron, Alex, Adam and many more

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations: 

General agreement was that there were lots of things about football we wanted to see in theatre:

• The PASSION of the audience
• The commitment of the audience
• The audience’s confidence to say exactly what they thought of the performance
• The results at the end of the national news bulletin
• The media coverage – what would Nick Hytner have to do to get Beckham’s coverage? Advertise Gillette?
• The performers sweating
• The audience being able to affect the result
• The audience coming back next week even if what they just saw was bad
• Audiences who discuss the performance in the interval, rather than where they went on holiday
• The sense of anticipation before the match

Examples of where theatre does inspire like football

• Theatre in the round – you can see the rest of the audience
• Theatre Royal Stratford East – the audience lets you know what they think, the local community has an opinion on the theatre – stop you in the street to say they like what you’re doing or not
• The Globe – the audience can move around, as an actor if you think you’re loosing their attention you fight to get them involved

Mark Rylance – “To be……….” [pause]

A member of the audience – “or not to be”

Mark Rylance – “That is the question”

• Stoke Theatre – the health of the local theatre is as important as the health of the local football team
• Lyric Hammersmith – investment in the local community to make the community more passionate about it
• Theatre in schools – the most honest audience you will ever have
• Street Theatre/circus
• Kenneth Macmillam – went to football to find inspiration for his choreography
• Forum Theatre – the audience can alter the result
• The Gong Show
• Peter Brooke
• Faust in Wapping – the audience can walk away, they have masks to unite them
• Blue Man Group – the audience is a part of the show
• Mamma Mia – the audience is all singing the same songs
• The audience at the ENO the night of the BNP fight
• La Scala – as inspiring as the Nou Camp

Things we could do to learn from the passion that football inspires:

• Don’t turn the auditorium lights off
• Betting – should audiences bet on the results of a show?
• Set up a Fantasy theatre league: who is doing well, who isn’t, what shows do we like, what shows don’t we like. A way of introducing competition
• Introduce natural light in theatre
• Performers need to harness the imaginative power of the audience
• Use the model of the Cup competitions – when you go and see Le Page, you’re shown a bit of an unknown company’s work as well
• Allow audiences to walk out in disgust- employ the law of two feet in theatre
• Overcome our fear of audiences not liking a show – take that as a challenge
• Provide moments of magic that are as special as a Thierry Henry goal (or at least the one last night)
• We need to help theatre audience understand the contract they are entering into with the performers.
• Give the audience their team colour – masks (faust), headbands (blue man group), torches (Tejas Verdes)
• Every show you do, you should it in a school first – then you’ll know if it’s any good