Dear audience. We need to talk. I don’t understand you. Every time I go to a show, you stand up at the end to applaud. Every damn time!
You give standing ovations at EVERY show. You suffer from systemic ovation.
But don’t you understand that if you applaud everything and anything, your ovation no longer means anything?
If you give bouquets of flowers to all women, the bouquet you give to your wife is no longer special.
Well, it’s the same thing at the show. So keep your ovations for exceptional performances! Because the ovation should be, precisely, an exception!
MODERATE YOUR TRANSPORT!
Thanks to my job, I go to see live arts at least once a week. It goes from Beautiful Symphonic Damage in Montreal at Santa Claus is a bastard at DIX30, passing by a tribute to RBO in Trois-Rivières or Starmania in Laval. And it hits me every time.
The singers/actors/dancers/trapeze artists have barely finished their last note/reply/jump/juggling and you’re already on your two feet applauding wildly.
Misery! If you applaud everything, anytime, anywhere, it’s as if you applauded nothing. Your ovation has no value anymore.
What are you afraid of? That if you sit still, or clap moderately, you’ll get sideways looks from the other audience? Are you afraid the performers on stage will spot you, write down your seat number, and slash your tires in the parking lot?
It’s like tipping. You’re so afraid of getting a dirty look from the waitress that you push 18% or 20% because you’re afraid of being judged.
Dear audience, we also need to talk about your sniggers. I don’t know why you laugh all the time… even when it’s not funny.
The other day, at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, during the play The woman who runs awayyou were laughing constantly. But this play is a tragedy! It tells the (true) story of a woman who abandoned her children to go and see if she was there elsewhere. Even when Suzanne Meloche’s son was committed, there were people who sniggered… Is it out of nervousness, like Marie-Louise Arsenault “disarmed” by a comedian who caricatures Quebecers? Is it out of habit, because you think you’re in your living room in front of your 48-inch TV?
Or is it because… you’re afraid of silence?
ARTS FOR GIRLS?
Dear audience, you also need to explain to me why… you are less and less of an audience.
According to the Working Group on Performing Arts Attendance (GTFAS), which released its report on Tuesday, 43% of Quebecers over the age of 16 have not attended any shows in the past year.
“Just 57% of men aged 16 to 24 attended at least one show last year, a substantial drop of 12 percentage points from 2018.”
How can this be explained? Gender stereotypes, which mean that “certain cultural and artistic activities are sometimes perceived as less masculine.”
Okay, guys, we need to talk!
