Don't be literal

October 28, 2018

In order to make good theatre, you can’t be literal.

Theatre is fundamentally a medium of metaphor.

The great truths in life can only be glimpsed by metaphor, not factual statements.

This is what people who only read non-fiction because fiction “isn’t real” don’t understand.

This is also what many theatre artists don’t understand.

Theatre is not meant to be a literal art form. That’s what film is for.

Theatre is transcendent, it is ecstatic. It reaches for greater truths through gestures, not through giving us a literal experience.

Don’t be literal.