The Gate Theatre

Last night I went with a friend to the Gate Theatre--"the most respected theatre in Dublin." It is famous for being the first in history to stage the nineteen plays of Samuel Beckett, and many well-known actors have performed here. I saw Noel Coward's "Private Lives," which is a somehow serious comedy about a one-time husband and wife who find themselves in adjacent honeymoon suites with their new spouses. The acting was absolutely superb!

I really love going to live plays such as this. The theatre is cozy, the audience is near the actors, and the entire story feels so real and as if you form a relationship with the actors. You are drawn in to the situations and feelings of those on stage, as they are living it out right before you, in real time. You feel as though you are participating somehow in their experience. A cinema has a distant, delayed, fabricated element, so one can never get as involved mentally as with live theatre. Plays such as this, with only 5 actors and a minimal set, also feel more genuine than an extravagant production. I suppose each of these forms of entertainment are intending to serve different purposes, so they are commendable in their own ways. I find films an escape from life here, a journey to another time and place (whether it is fiction or non-). Large productions such as musicals are completely unrealistic so I can only marvel in the talent of the singers and dancers--clearly not true to life as no one in their right mind breaks out in song in the middle of an intense situation. Plays invite me to share in an experience of another's life, they speak to my relational side and allow me to live with them for a moment.

My first real experience with a professional play--when I first realize what a tremendous art form it is--was 8 years ago while I was studying in London, taking a theatre appreciation course. The first play we saw was "The Woman in Black"--a murder mystery with only two or three actors and a very simple set. I was astounded at how we could be so enraptured by the play and truly frightened at the ghost story. We knew it was just a play and these are actors, yet an element of reality is present since they are there--live--experiencing it right before you. I'm shuddering now just remembering that play. So if you haven't gone out to the theatre in awhile, I do recommend it to you!