Over Thanksgiving break, Molly and I saw two shows: Stick Fly and Other Desert Cities.
Both of them are living room plays. Both are about upperclass families. Both discuss class and politics. When broken down into generalities, these plays are very similar. But the experience as an audience member was starkly different when seeing these shows. One is about a white family and the other is about a black family, but it was not the racial content that made them different, it was the audiences.
When Molly and I sat down to see Other Desert Cities, she pointed out that the entire audience was white. I looked around and it was true. Frankly it upset me that there was such a specific group there and it began a whole argument in my head about how theatre shouldn’t be so goddamn elitist. So when Molly and I sat down to see Stick Fly I was very intrigued to see that the audience was mainly black. What I found interesting was how each audience approached their play.
Other Desert Cities is mainly a comedy, though there are very tragic elements (much like Stick Fly). Yet, the audience hardly reacted. Vocal reactions only manifested in soft chuckles at only the funniest of jokes. They were scarce, which created a visceral barrier between the story and the audience. It was almost as if the audience was rejecting the play. But to be honest, I didn’t think about this until after I saw Lydia’s show.
The audience at Stick Fly, however, was more vocal than any other I have ever witnessed. It was like having hundreds of Paula Langtons in the audience. In the first two minutes, a man behind us with an exceptionally deep voice uttered, “Wow” very loudly. Molly and I looked at each other and almost laughed. Then he continued to do so throughout the whole piece. He was not alone, though. The vast majority of the audience was murmuring and sighing in solidarity with the players. Most of the audience had no qualms about whispering to their neighbor, discussing the ongoing action. By the end of the show, I too was being vocal. I was letting the play land in me in a way that I hadn’t let Other Desert Cities.
Ultimately, the vocality of the audience in Stick Fly was a tremendous factor in why I loved the production so much. The audience approached it with a level of empathy that I had never before experienced. Instead of being “good audience members” by being quiet and critical, this audience allowed the piece to move them and created an audible dialogue between themselves and the play that I fell in love with.
