Every theatregoer I know is desperate to see live theatre again. There have been a lot of online offerings, but we are all champing at the bit to sit breathing, laughing and gasping in the same room. But, still, I find myself bristling at the way people talk about online theatre as if it is “not the real thing” because it is not live. It is something I discussed recently with Mike Bartlett, the writer of Doctor Foster, who also disagreed with the assumption that online theatre is a lesser form.
The online dramas that so many theatres have made available, from the RSC to the National Theatre, have had a hugely democratising effect on an art form that is often accused of being elitist and expensive. Now, viewers don’t have to be sitting in a velvet seat, just on their own sofa. Plus, if you create a rich digital archive that covers the range of works being made, it puts an end to the hand-wringing about how to make theatre more accessible. Even if some online productions are charging, it is still significantly cheaper than buying a ticket to the West End.
The growth of powerful, quick-response online plays in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests – dramas written and performed by black playwrights and actors that combine art with activism – has also been exciting and shown the medium’s flexibility. I wonder how many of these works would have been staged and seen by as many people otherwise.
My education in theatre was through TV in the 80s, when there was a trend for staging plays on screen. I watched everything from I, Claudius to Laurence Oliver’s Hamlet and all the Samuel Beckett plays the BBC put on. You could see the cardboard scenery wobbling away in some of them, but it didn’t matter. It was my only access to theatre, because, beyond an annual school trip, I couldn’t afford to see it otherwise. They filled me with their magic and poetry. It was how I fell in love with Shakespeare and Beckett. As Bartlett said to me, online theatre may not be the same thing, but that is OK, because it is its own thing.
Arifa Akbar is the Guardian’s chief theatre critic
