Impermanence at the Theatre

I recently went to see a play. This isn’t something that I do very often, mostly because plays are expensive and I’m a broke student. Still, there’s something special about the theatre. It could be the way that the lights come up at the very beginning of the first act, or the way that you can physically see all of the pieces coming together at once, but I think it’s something else. It’s never the same way twice.

I watch a lot of movies, and the thing about them is that if I missed a line, or wanted to see what a background character was doing, I can just watch it again. Also, if I feel so inclined, I can turn a movie on and walk away and do the dishes, or write an essay, or something similar. I can’t do that with the theatre. 

Because it’s only going to happen once.

I’m a big multitasker, and I think that it’s good that something like the theatre stops me from doing that. You have to sit down and focus solely on what is happening, and what you see will never happen again. That actor is never going to deliver that line in exactly the same way, and the audience will never chuckle exactly the same at that hidden pun. It’s here and now and special.

There’s something magical about being part of something that’s once-in-a-lifetime. But everything is once-in-a-lifetime, isn’t it? It’s only when we realize that something is that it becomes special.

I don’t know a lot of people who still go to see plays regularly, but I think it’s worth it, if only because you can’t see it again.