Advertising images reinforce the idea that theatre is all about period costume and received pronunciation, and that's a real problem for new audiences, says Matt Trueman.
What is it about two blokes in jerkins having a sword fight that says 'theatre'?
Let me go back a step. Last week, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Qatar with the company from Shakespeare's Globe touring Hamlet to every country on earth (except the really dodgy ones). As part of the trip, we went round Doha, the Qatari capital, trying to get a photograph that told the whole story in an instant - a location that screamed Qatar and a pose that screamed Hamlet. You can probably picture the image. Think skyscrapers, sand and a skull. Bingo.
To get some alternatives, the photographer asked the actors playing Hamlet and Laertes to draw their swords. As they leaned into each other, foils crossed, faces snarled, I suddenly clocked the oddity of that set-up: two men in period costume duelling on a patch of grass by the side of a motorway, surrounded by parked cars and picnicking Arabs. They could only be one thing: actors... Keep reading on What's on Stage
What is it about two blokes in jerkins having a sword fight that says 'theatre'?
Let me go back a step. Last week, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Qatar with the company from Shakespeare's Globe touring Hamlet to every country on earth (except the really dodgy ones). As part of the trip, we went round Doha, the Qatari capital, trying to get a photograph that told the whole story in an instant - a location that screamed Qatar and a pose that screamed Hamlet. You can probably picture the image. Think skyscrapers, sand and a skull. Bingo.
To get some alternatives, the photographer asked the actors playing Hamlet and Laertes to draw their swords. As they leaned into each other, foils crossed, faces snarled, I suddenly clocked the oddity of that set-up: two men in period costume duelling on a patch of grass by the side of a motorway, surrounded by parked cars and picnicking Arabs. They could only be one thing: actors... Keep reading on What's on Stage