On Shit

One of my favorite playwrights in Philly, and someone whose work and ideas I admire a lot recently presented a play which ended with a character throwing a bucket of shit on the audience.

I'm not sure what to feel about the play itself, but I can say with certainty that throwing a bucket of shit on the audience is the exact and polar opposite of anything I ever want to do.

Doesn't the audience get a bucket of shit thrown on them enough? Just kidding. But actually not just kidding.

Why do we do this?

"Hold a mirror up to the audience,""Force people out of their complacency" these phrases and their most misused cousin "tell the truth" come up a lot in our discussion of our role as artists.

I know that I am not qualified to do these things, and I don't like being theatred at by people who think they are. As a person who lives it, I can report that life is scary and difficult, and that holding a mirror up to yourself is one of the scariest and most difficult things you can do in it. That's the *truth.* To hold an audience captive, and then try to force that mirror in their faces would border on violence if it were ever successful. Thankfully it's not. Mostly audiences just leave with the vague notion of having been mean spiritedly patronized. You're welcome.

Telling the truth is an act of humility. Otherwise, it's a lie going around with a pious name. That's my least favorite kind of lie because it diminishes people's capacity to offer or receive any actual honesty.

We call that part of the theater "the house." Don't invite someone into your house because you think they need to be taught something about themselves by you. Would you like that? Would you go there a second time ?