I went to a play this week. Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin, presented by Soulpepper / Crow’s Theatre/ The Howland Company in Toronto. At the end, the curtain call garnered a slow but definite standing ovation. I thoroughly enjoyed the preview performance. It did not bring me to my feet. Don’t get me wrong. The play was compelling. The direction was solid, bringing the design elements together to support the talented ensemble to deliver the goods. The script left me lots to think about afterwards.
I sat in the front row, and raised my hands high so performers could see my enthusiastic support. I just didn’t feel inspired to stand up.
Then I did.
I felt the pressure of the majority. I wondered how performers would take the fact that everyone visible to them was standing, except for me. I also felt pressure because I had chosen this play mostly to support one of the actors I knew in the cast. What would they think if I did not stand like everyone else around me?
Why Go to the Theatre?
I love the theatre. I write plays, and I attend a lot of plays.
Some experiences in the theatre are pleasant, some are arresting, some are vibrant, some are thrilling, and some are thought-provoking (as this one was) after the fact.
Others, not so much.
At the curtain call for almost every show I go to now, there is a nearly universal standing ovation from the audience. It starts with applause, and then you can count on people getting on their feet, smiling at the stage, and applauding vigorously. Sometimes shouts of “bravo or “brava” accompany the moment.
I’d like to unpack the experience a little.
What’s a Standing Ovation for?
Standing ovations, to me, are a gut level, physical response to a performance event. The phrase “brought me to my feet” is literally what should occur. You feel compelled to get up, as if nothing could keep you seated to express your enthusiasm. What you witnessed far exceeded expectations.
These days, and it’s been happening for a while now, it seems like an ovation occurs because the performance met expectations. As if the only way to show your approval is to applaud and stand.
This has removed the specialness of an ovation for the performers.
I can think of a couple of other reasons that might garner a standing ovation, for better or worse.
Theatre is Hard Work
One is to applaud the hard work of everyone involved. This applies especially in amateur and school theatre. I’ve done a ton of it in my time, and if families of the cast are standing at the end of the play for that alone, I’ll take it. There is a special level of exhaustion in amateur theatre because the event is done after one’s regular job or academic responsibilities are completed. You want to applaud and stand for the sweat and tears that led up to the presentation- no matter what the quality of the result? Go for it. It’s deserved.
Standing and Applauding for Yourself
A different reason some people stand while they applaud is they are applauding themselves at the occasion. Think of an expensive Broadway ticket. It’s almost as if the inner voice is saying, “After paying for parking and/or the hotel and flight, plus the premium ticket price, you’re damn right I’m going to stand. It helps turn this performance into the life-changing event they charged me for. I’m applauding myself for helping to create it.”
I Stood Because I Had To
Lots of theatre has brought me to my feet. Maggie Smith in Private Lives. Glenda Jackson in Three Tall Women. Not to mention, as cheesy as it seems, the original London company of A Chorus Line, which influenced my dive into the theatre.
Lots of theatre is worth seeing. Just maybe not worth an ovation.
Give What It Deserves
By sharing this, I hope it will remind me to respond to a show with what I feel it deserves. And if it sparks a standing ovation, the performers will really know the superlativeness of the experience they have shared with the audience.
What are your thoughts? Does my post deserve a Standing O? Is there a corresponding emoji? Send it my way!
A follow up comment. People also stand so they can see the stage. Again, nothing to do with what the performance deserves.
Totally agree— so unjust to make me the asshole by default because what I just saw wasn’t Betty Buckley in Cats (worthy).
But also mediocrity is contagious and camouflaged.
People now don’t realize that what they’re seeing is mediocre.
Their brains are numb from the internet. So if one person sees the emperor’s clothes, another will too, until everyone is literally standing and shouting, essentially: “look! You did your job! Lots of lines to memorize!”
And I’m the idiot who still says they’re naked.
I still say stay sitting.