Thanks to smart phones, instant entertainment is in the palm of our hands. So, with screen drama cheaper to watch and less effort to access, how will local theatre survive?
“I'm an eternal optimist when it comes to theatre-going,” says Simon Hinton, artistic director of Merrigong Theatre Company.
“To some extent, buying theatre tickets is a risk because it's not sitting and watching Netflix.
“We understand that the investment is large for an audience member, and the risk is great, but the pay-off is something that you just cannot get through that experience of watching television or consuming something in your house, because it's a collective experience.
“I think we are hard-wired as a species to want to gather.”
Strong start to season
Local audiences would seem to agree. Merrigong Theatre Co has had a strong start to its 2024 season, with a sold-out run of Sydney Theatre Company’s RBG, Of Many One in April. So far this year, Merrigong has brought three national and international productions to Wollongong, attracting more than 4000 people. And during the school holidays, over 500 young families enjoyed performances at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC), home of Merrigong Theatre Co.
“To me, theatre-going and gathering for performance, for story … is fundamentally human," Simon says.
“So as people that work in the arts, our job is to make sure that those experiences are as extraordinary as they can be and never take for granted people's time, commitment and investment to be there.”
Later this year, local audiences can look forward to seeing the two longest-running plays from London’s West End in Wollongong. The thriller The Woman In Black will come to IPAC in July and the murder-mystery Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap in September.
Theatre might rise and fall in popularity, but it will never disappear, Simon says.
“I'm incredibly hopeful for the future of theatre. I think that we, to some extent, as human beings, we have no choice but to gather and to reflect on who we are as a community and to tell our stories.
“It's a fundamental human desire to tell our stories, to hear the stories of our tribe, to reflect on we are together. I think that will always happen.”
Merrigong champions local work
2024's MerrigongX program, which includes support for local independent works in development, will feature three new stage productions by up-and-coming Illawarra talent. In August, save the date for A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen or How To Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry, by Josh Hinton (Simon’s son) and Birdsong of Tomorrow; in October, take in Rose Maher’s nostalgic The Cardinal Rules.
These shows are a chance to see the hits of tomorrow.
“We've had some fantastic works come through the MerrigongX,” Simon says.
One example is Kay Proudlove’s coming-of-age comedy Dear Diary, which debuted as a MerrigongX show in 2022 and returns to IPAC next week from May 8-11.
“Dear Diary is actually on a 14-venue national tour this year and will be presented in our main stage season as well.”
More people have bought Merrigong season packages in 2024, yet audience numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels.
“If you talk to people in the theatre anywhere in Australia and probably anywhere internationally, they would say that the audience patterns have changed dramatically,” Simon says.
Post-Covid, people want to go out earlier in the evening, and not be out as late. “Saturday night is weirdly now often our least well-sold performance, and people want to go to early evening shows in the mid-week, so very different patterns of behaviour.”
Artists will respond to these changes, he believes.
“Artists always are at the pointy end of how society shifts and changes. It hasn't yet emerged, but I think that we will start to see theatre being made in different ways and in different contexts, and being reimagined for a new time and for new audiences.”
Theatre in an age of AI
Even Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be more opportunity than threat.
“Artists have always embraced technology and the possibilities of new things,” Simon says.
While acknowledging it’s early days and society still needs to confront ethical questions about authorship, identity and creation, he says: “I suspect that what will happen gradually is that artists will take a leading role in thinking about how human creativity and AI can work together to create things that maybe we couldn't create without it.
“So that could be quite exciting.
“Artists and art are always a part of understanding the problem and providing ideas for the solutions.”
On a practical level, AI may even prove to be a powerful tool to help the overworked, underpaid arts community with managing the business side of their performance work.
“We should be cautious, but not afraid,” Simon says.
“In my darker moments, I do think how disorienting it could be to live in a world where we are not really sure what is real or what is not real …
“But then I think about that thing of sitting with other humans in a space and watching a performance – having a story told to us by a real live person there, and how that's a very real fundamental human experience.
"And maybe theatres are becoming the last places where we would have that.”
Dear Diary opens on May 8. For details of upcoming shows and to buy tickets, visit Merrigong Theatre Co
