Vol. 48 No. 4 1981 - page 620

620
PARTISAN REVIEW
art sacramental, a lofty cultural experience or a holy, counter–
cultural act. America's sturdy individualism is suspicious of the col–
lective nature of the performing arts in particular, prefers stars to
ensembles, solitary creators to durable artistic groups. And super–
imposed on these attitudes is the powerful apparatus of the most
vigorous consumer capitalism in the world, selling products to
markets .
How does this inheritance affect the American theatre? I think
it has undermined the possibilities of making an audience. When–
ever I've attended an American theatre during these past six
months - and those visits have included commercial, "institutional,»
and
avant-garde
theatres - I've had the feeling that I haven't been sit–
ting in a real audience. And I've come to the conclusion that, by and
large, the American theatre at this moment doesn't have an audi–
ence. It has customers, subscribers, or acolytes, but it doesn't seem
to me to have a sizeable, dedicated, informed body of theatregoers
who come to a play with openness to the unfamiliar, and for whom a
night out at the theatre is as natural as going to the movies.
The feel and flavor of a house full of playgoers can give clues
about the status of theatre in any society. British audiences tend to
be attentive but unassertive, though capable of peaks of emotion and
glee. French audiences are acute, expert, explosive, voluble. Ameri–
can audiences are either hyperreactive or stonily defiant, aggres–
sively opinionated or at a loss for words. They are also immensely
susceptible to critics writing like racehorse tipsters, and to saturation
advertising - the sheer volume of which hits a newcomer with
raucous force.
Of course, all audiences have their failings. The typical London
audience errs towards coziness and timidity. The Paris audience is
prone to cultural chauvinism and intellectual impatience. The typi–
cal New York audience often strikes me as being on its guard, like a
customer who wants to be sure his experience meets the claims made
on its behalf. So, if theatre in Britain is typically perceived as tradi–
tion and custom, in France as classic form or radical discovery, in
America it's seen as basically another competitive product.
Outside the dominant commercial theatre, the audiences I've
been part of don't seem to form a significant, fully public alternative.
In the
avant-garde
theatre, for instance, the staple audience is a
congregation of the dedicated, the aesthetic equivalent of early
Christian sects - until the vanguard becomes chic and the art crowd
moves in. The
avant-garde
adventure can become a trip from secrecy
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