Now the truth may be told

Around most every BAT production someone contacts BAT to discuss an issue they have about the production. I would not say that BAT gets very many comments, but there is almost always one or two for every production.

BAT loves it when our patrons and the community talk to BAT. But as one of BAT’s trustees put it, “If you don’t occasionally get a complaint or two, you are not really creating art.”

Some comments are enlightening. For example, one show BAT set in 2002, and an actor was using a Motorola Razor (a flip phone). One observant patron pointed out that the Razor did not come out until 2004, two years after the date the show was set. BAT now collects unused cell phones, so BAT always has the right year of phone in stock. (You can send your old phone to BAT!)

Sex with Strangers was a little different. BAT did not receive any complaints about the show. In fact, all of BAT’s feedback was nothing but positive. Those who came to the show loved it. Those who stayed away, because of the title, missed the chance to see the best live theater this Winter.

Two people did send comments to BAT before the show opened. The complaints were two-fold. First, A person did not think BAT should advertise the name of the play because it has the word “sex” in it. And Sex with Strangers, well. . . . . It was pointed out to BAT that what two people do in private should never be mentioned in public.

BAT explained that it was very hard to get people to come to see a show if you do not mention the name of the show. The person was unimpressed. Simply put, the word “sex” should never be used in public. BAT asked if she complained about the title of the show Sex in the City. BAT never heard back, except for a one-word comment, “Shame.”

The second comment was that BAT’s poster was pornographic. What do you think?

It appears the four legs in the poster caused the person’s sixth-grader to tell his mother that there were people having sex under the table, and she did not want to talk to her “innocent” child about sex for a few more years. BAT tried to gently point out that if looking at those legs caused her child to think people were having sex, the time to talk to the child about sex had long past.

This is the first time anyone has complained about BAT’s posters. The funny thing is that BAT’s poster for Sex with Strangers was the least sexual of all the options BAT looked at. As one of BAT’s trustees put it, “If you don’t occasionally get a complaint or two, you are not really creating art.”