On the sitcom and the theatre

In a previous post I argued that it is as if the essential stage-ness of plays had been forgotten; as if we didn't dare to admit on stage that we are, actually, on a stage (which, in itself, as all general statements, is a gross oversimplification). Now I think there is one dramatic genre which retained more of its stage-ness than the others. It is the musical.

In fact, the fabric of the musical (conveying a story by singing and choreography as well as by prose) is so artificial in itself that one would think it would be futile to try to convince the audience that what they experience is, or can be, a part of an alternative reality -- in other words, to try to stage a musical in a realistic or naturalistic manner. Instead, what happens is that musicals generate their own code systems on the levels of movement, gestures, speech, etc. in which their actors are trained, and which are read by the audience without any difficulty. The artificiality of these techniques shows best when the stage is left behind and -- for some reason -- musical acting happens in an everyday environment.

This is precisely what happens in the following video. (Song by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Arranged by Jamie Laboz. http://www.improveverywhere.com) Note the exaggerated gestures of the girl at the beginning explaining the accident, and the out-of-place movement of the arms of the man with a moustache when signalling, probably, walking immediately after standing up.

All these gestures would seem natural on stage. In theatrical acting (as opposed to acting for the camera) exaggerated gestures and wide movements, in fact, must be used in order to be seen from the farthest seat in the auditorium. If so, why would anyone want us to believe by putting a naturalistic setting on stage that what we see is a documentary movie filmed with hidden cameras? We know it isn't, the actors know that it isn't, and, in some instances, they go to unbelievable lengths to sound and look "natural" driven by a misconception of the innovations of C. S. Stanislavski.

To take a specific example, Legally Blonde The Musical is, in this respect, a mixed achievement. Some of the scenes -- like the opening papier-maché building, or the final court-in-the-bathroom scene -- are beautifully theatrical. So are the choreographies acted out on an empty stage or in front of a projected background, like the aerobic-dance of the inmates. But the complete set of a beauty salon raised and lowered a thousand times is a sad example of an attempted naturalism that, in certain ways, stands in contrast to and is obliterated by other scenes with a more abstract setting.

I think the power of theatre lies in its theatre-ness, not in its limited ability to imitate something else. In a sense, it is like sitcom: nothing is taken seriously, and this is precisely why it is dead serious. Being like a sitcom does not mean that it is necessarily light. On the contrary. While a story set among the décor of reality can only be touching, I firmly believe that what can genuinely be tragic in the classical sense can only happen in a theatre that is let to be theatre; which remains abstract in its specificness.