Apparently, recent reports of a bear sighted in Rendlesham forest in Suffolk have turned out to be an elaborately staged hoax, concocted by a theatre company seeking advance publicity for their production of The Winter's Tale. Shakespeare's magical fable is headed for an outdoor staging set - yes - in those very same woods this summer.
The story was picked up by the Daily Mail and had the Daily Telegraph duped. One might suppose, then, that it's something of a success as far as publicity coups go – but is it? After all, what have the company really achieved? A bit of a higher-profile awareness for their forthcoming show in national papers, sure, but then it's hardly the sort of publicity prompting anyone to travel beyond their immediate environs to track down a company who fooled the national press with a blurry ursine picture.
For me, this is the problem: aside from the fact of its existence, this sort of publicity tells us nothing about the production itself. Instead, it simply alludes to desperate attention-seeking. Moreover, it associates the production with a kind of wacky stunt-hunting that may work against its artistic intentions. The Winter's Tale, isn't, after all, one of Shakespeare's most comedic plays, so why ally its solemnity and beauty with a bolshie prank played on a credulous press?
Worse, this sort of publicity plays into a news agenda that is already stacked up against the dramatic arts. Without a television programme, a big name (ideally, a TV or film star), or a stridently news-led slant, theatre gets virtually no coverage. Yes, of course, in the wider scheme of things, it's a pretty niche interest, but on the other hand, that's all the more reason for better reporting. And yet sadly it seems we're stuck with a national mentality where only novelty value cuts any ice, and where anyone wanting coverage of any kind has to resort to quirky attention-seeking.
