The vast majority of Dutch adults never go to the theatre. Interestingly enough, the question among theatre people is never really about why people don't go to the theatre. After all, our arts sector is a supply market. At an art school, you are not trained to please the public, but to express your most individual emotion. And preferably not in a way that the subsidy committee or critic has not already seen somewhere else last year.
Raoul Heertje does now start asking non-goers why they don't go, and he held a working session about it at Theatre Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch. It was actually quite disconcerting. Listen to the conversation I had with him about it afterwards.
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'I was surprised because there is a persistent image about theatre and theatre-makers which is very much about elitist and posh, intellectual and heavy. I do recognise that image, but it has nothing to do with reality.'
'One boy, Stijn, has been working in hospitality at this festival for 12 years, but he never goes to theatre, not even here. He doesn't like the conversations about a play, they drive him crazy. Some people don't like it at all and others like it very much, and those conversations are all very heavy. So where artists think they are making something that makes people think, or wants to make them feel something, or wants to open something up, people actually see that as a barrier to go. Because it opens things up that they don't want open.'
Deter
'What makes theatre important to theatre-makers actually deters some of the people. I do think that once those people experience it, they will love it.'
They also pretend that nothing at all happens in cabaret. That exists, but there is also cabaret where something is said, but because the form is accessible, people think that nothing happens in your head either. But that's so not true.'
With theatre, you never know what you will get, they say.
'But that is precisely the point of theatre. That's why it's so interesting. I have the impression that marketing people do not apply this enough. The very purpose of theatre is to create confusion. Marketing-wise, this is stupid because people actually want to know where they stand. That difference is extremely big in theatre. I think the theatre world needs to lay an egg about that. Because we are now doing something that is a reason for some people not to go. You can win these people over, I'm convinced of that.'
What is marketing doing wrong?
'The difference between what really happens and what the perception is, that happens, is far too big.'
I see a lot of difficult text in press releases and leaflets.
'True. These are texts written by theatre people, for theatre people. It's a matter of language. You have to try your best to find the language. on stage, we try tremendously hard to find the right language, but in sales, we don't succeed.'
Relaxed performance
Jeffrey Meulman, principal of Raoul Heertje's research and recently director of the Bossche theatre and film house Verkadefabriek, wants to start experimenting in his theatre with relaxed performances: evenings where you can just walk around during the performance, get a beer, that sort of thing. 'People in Dutch theatre are afraid that spectators will then misbehave, but it turns out to be very peaceful at trials in England.'
'Theatre directors I speak to have experimented with a wider set-up and service in the auditorium, but they don't dare continue that because it costs money in unsold tickets. The revenue model doesn't allow it.'
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