Playwright Mike Bartlett Thinks Theater is "Really Bad"

The Guardian's Hermione Hoby spoke with playwright Mike Bartlett before his new play, Cock, opens at London's Royal Court Theatre. Cock stars Ben Whishaw as "a happily partnered gay man who falls in love with a woman."

Thing is, Bartlett doesn't seem to like theater very much, as shown in Hoby's story "Most theatre is still really bad":

"We've got to get away from the idea that it's good to go to the theatre," Bartlett tells Hoby. "It isn't church. There's nothing innately good about it. Most theatre is still really bad... It has to appeal to people who do jobs and have lives. Theatre about theatre is the most awful, terminal nonsense."

On theater keeping up with TV:

"It's good to know what your audience have been watching the other four nights of the week. If you're still going at theatre-in-the-1970s speed and your audience has been watching The Wire, then your play's going to seem pretty slow."

"[TV] has the potential to change the culture in a much bigger, quicker way than theatre can."

What do you think? Does it take a playwright with no respect for theater to advance the medium? Or is Bartlett just doing further damage to a dying art?

For more, read the full story at Guardian.co.uk.

-- Daniel Lehman