Last week we addressed the proposition that popular theatre is killing off serious theatre because its direct appeal to laughter and light entertainment has dominated the audience and serious drama is struggling to survive. We argued that this is not supported by the evidence and is a false dichotomy.
The case might be made in the Caribbean where comedy and farce certainly command the stage and producers hesitate to produce tragic and artistic plays because tickets will not sell. But elsewhere around the world in larger, more developed theatre communities the situation is a bit different. Furthermore, the use of the term serious theatre is questioned and it might be found that the supposed conflict is overstated, as can be seen in a survey of the history.
