I will not come to to a performance

BAT’s run of The Addams Family was very successful. Thanks to all who donated, bought tickets or worked on the show. It was more fun that people should be able to have at one Bat-Marketing logo final-colortime.

However, during the run I had a conversation with a would-be patron that troubles me. A would-be patron called to voice her objection to BAT’s current season. She said she would not attend any of the productions nor would she donate this season because BAT was going to produce “In the Next Room or the vibrator play.”

As the artistic director, I fielded the call. I asked what was troubling about that show. She responded that there was no reason for “that type of show” and if we had any decency we would know that.

I asked if she knew that “In the Next Room or the vibrator play” was finalist for The Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2010. She said that did not matter. “Those types” of plays should not be done.

The Pulitzer Prize website sums up the play as, “An inventive work that mixes comedy and drama as it examines the medical practice of a 19th century American doctor and confronts questions of female sexuality and emancipation.”

I asked if she knew the play was nominated for three Tony Awards in 2010. She said that did not matter. She would not step foot in our theater at anytime this season if we were going to do that play as part of the season.

I asked is she liked love stories, as that play was the love story in BAT’s 2015-16 season. She said she wanted no part of “that kind” of love story.

I also asked if she had read the play. She said she would not read something like that. I asked if she had read any reviews of the play. She said she did not have to: She knew enough from the title.

When asked, she had not googled the play or looked it up on Wikipedia.

Although I listened, and I tried to make sense of her objections, the conversation left me unsatisfied.

After our call I looked back through ten years of BAT’s records and the caller had not been a donor. I also checked BAT’s reservations lists and if she had been a patron, she had not made a reservation under her own name. So, it would be easy to dismiss her concerns.

But for some reason, I could not get that conversation out of my head. Here was a person willing to forgo seeing “The Addams Family,” “A Christmas Twist,” and “The Letters.” Not because those plays were not good, but because the fourth show in BAT’s season was, in her view, a play not worth seeing. Her opinion did not appear to be based on facts but based entirely from her reading of the show’s title.

This is troubling, but not unknown to theater companies. For example, more than once the comedy “God of Carnage,” a play that makes me laugh every time I read it, has made it to the short list of BAT’s season play selection, only to come off the list for fear people would think it was a dark or violent play. It is neither.

Even this year, BAT had multiple conversations about doing “In the Next Room or the vibrator play” for fear of people reacting to it as the caller reacted. Nevertheless, “In the Next Room or the vibrator play” is such a tender love story and it is told in such a cleaver and sweet way that BAT decided to add the play to its season.

All of this leaves me with more unanswered questions. One person’s art is sometimes another person trash or obscenity. Just as not every television show makes it through a whole season, much less gets renewed, not every play will sell out nearly every performance. You can’t please everyone all of the time. But for a theater isn’t it enough to tell a good story? (Assuming enough donors and patrons keep giving and buying tickets that you can keep the doors open.)

Not that BAT needed it, but “The Addams Family” was a very good reminder that it is more fun to play to a sold out house than to half an audience or, heaven forbid, an even smaller audience. But what does it take to keep the seats full?

BAT is no stranger to controversy. For a theater in the suburbs, over its 36 seasons, BAT has done more than its share of shows that were, at the time, cutting edge or controversial. That is a tradition BAT intends to continue, not for shock value, but because those plays most often speak to issues well worth looking into, and if produced properly, they make good entertainment.

So, how do you convince people to get off the sofa, come out in the rain, to see a play that might not have the words unicorns or rainbows in the title? At BAT we’ll keep doing the very best theater possible, reaching out to patrons and counting on donors. We will see in February if that will be enough to fill the houses for a very touching love story with the name of an appliance in the title.

2 Comments

  • Roy
    Posted November 4, 2015 1:35 am 0Likes

    You know what they say: you are not doing art if you don’t offend some people. Bravo to you for daring to challenge perceptions and produce the play in the suburbs. I hope folks see beyond the title and attend the show.

  • Bonnie
    Posted November 4, 2015 11:16 am 0Likes

    Such a shame there is such narrow minded folks out there. If she does not want to see the production, do not go. She is only depriving herself of a wonderful season of performances.

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