Can there be too much digital theatre? – your views, May 21

Lyn Gardner’s opinion piece on theatre online poses an ultimatum: when theatre considers its presence in the digital sphere, particularly in the coronavirus economy, should we be prioritising quantity or quality? Should our conversations with audiences be writ large in broad pixels of neon acrylic paint, or intricately woven, organic and personalised? Which approach is going to prove most fruitful in the long term when it comes to cultivating new and engaged audiences via digital channels? And might the current global lockdown be the catalyst for this conversation.

The flurry of filmed theatre broadcasts and cast live streams over the past few weeks certainly reads like a panicked attempt by the industry to remain seen and relevant. I get the distinct impression Gardner, and those cited in her piece, think of this collective response as a failing.

But I ask, why shouldn’t theatre spray paint itself across every digital platform available, especially at this time of theatrical famine? When we have a captive global audience, a means of getting a free or low-cost sample of product to them (albeit a “reheated” one), why wouldn’t we? Does generating a wide-as-possible audience catchment today compromise a segmented, bespoke approach tomorrow? Why can’t digital tools be employed on both a micro and macro level in our efforts to lead audiences to loving live theatre?

My own love affair with theatre began when I was a child, with a cassette cast recording of The Phantom of the Opera. I was enraptured by it. I soon discovered there were other Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, and even other musical theatre composers. My rapture grew. Eventually, I stumbled upon myriad other forms of theatre – plays, opera, dance, immersive, experimental, static, conceptual and otherwise indefinable. I loved all of it so much I opted for a career that ensured I could help to make all this theatre happen, even in a small way. But in doing so I found that many industry people look on any mass-audience theatre effort with a kind of puritanical disdain. So often the underlying assumption of a conversation – or of an entire working environment – boils down to a genuine public versus commercial, us versus them, mentality.

As someone who was given a single seed of mass-distributed theatrical engagement 30 years ago – a seed that took root and bore fruit on both a personal and professional level – I would urge those of us looking to cultivate genuine audience growth: let’s continue to be innovative in the digital sphere and every channel available. Let’s continue to engage in complex conversations with audiences and explore the subtle dynamics of our communities. Let’s continue to sensitively cultivate those relationships in whatever ways work best for them.

But also, please don’t let’s confine our vision to the minutiae of our own walled gardens when there’s a vast Eden at our collective fingertips.

Frank Browne
Via email

I think the other side of this is that digital theatre presents an answer to the accessibility issue theatre has had for a long time. Many people for example, who could not afford tickets to see hit productions at London’s National Theatre are getting to see productions they never could have dreamed of seeing otherwise.

Furthermore, an accusation that is often flung at the National is that it is not a truly national theatre – by beaming out theatre across the country people can see theatre in Scotland for example, that they never would have been able to see otherwise. It is easy to see the flaws in simply streaming past productions, but for many people, for many reasons such as geography and finances, digital theatre is providing a lifeline through lockdown.

Aled Hanson
Via the stage.co.uk