Don’t dismiss digital – it has spurred creativity and widened theatre’s appeal

David Benedict’s recent column on the pitfalls of filmed theatre was a good read, but it was interesting to consider it in the context of the Boundless Creativity report, published the same week by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Benedict argues that Covid forced theatremakers into “second-best,” and that, while “making online work for freelancers and staff, creating an income stream and holding on to audiences was absolutely vital”, he found the work dispiriting. But the report tells a different story, saying that where “creative meets tech is the place where great culture and economic value is going to be derived in the next 20 years”.

Theatre has demonstrated over the past 16 months that in a tight corner it can be adaptable. As in-person performance opens up, it would be a pity if theatre retreated from digital and failed to reap benefits because we are still reluctant to embrace the idea that technology is our friend, and not a threat to in-person shows.

The Boundless Creativity report is likely to be highly influential on government funding, so we should pay attention to it. One point it makes – which echoes research by NESTA on NT Live – is that experiencing digital culture sharpens rather than lessens the appetite for the live experience. Audiences don’t see themselves as having to choose between one and the other.

Like Benedict, I have found some offerings dispiriting, but that often happened when watching a mere copy of a stage show. Even when the NT streamed free productions from its back catalogue, it was the digital activity on Twitter and elsewhere around the shows, rather than the screenings themselves, that were most enjoyable and felt closer to the live experience.

There’s no denying the reach: 15 million views across 173 countries. Many – including the elderly and the disabled – who would never have been able to access those shows in the theatre or the cinema could suddenly see them. Sky Arts’ free-to-air service has tripled its reach during the pandemic and included the NT’s blissful Romeo and Juliet.

Companies that have played with digital tools in the same way they might play in rehearsal rooms have come up with some fascinating stuff

Of course, it will be interesting whether audience engagement can be sustained – and in the longer term, how much income can be derived from digital offerings, or whether there is creeping digital fatigue. Faced with the choice of an online show and a night in the pub garden, people may well vote with their feet for the latter.

Digital offers opportunities to reach international audiences and see international work without having to get on a plane. I will be curious if UK theatremakers who experienced international art during the pandemic that previously would have been hard to access will be influenced by it.

There has been dull work. But companies that have played with digital tools in the same way they might play in rehearsal rooms have come up with some fascinating stuff. Perhaps, as Mary Beard observed at the launch of Boundless Creativity: “One day we will look back to these dark and cloudy times as the moment when we really did harness technology to open up the best of what arts and culture have to offer on a wider and grander scale.”

That is happening, often led by smaller independent companies, which are less constrained by traditional notions of what theatre is. They tend to be more innovative and interactive than big players with lots of shiny kit that may just want to capture what they would have made anyway. Meanwhile, smaller outfits experiment, working out as they go along, repurposing every object they come across.

It is easy for those of us who’ve had the privilege of accessing live events for years to dismiss theatre’s baby steps to embrace digital as all sub-standard. It would be a great shame if theatre reverted to business as usual and lost its curiosity about harnessing and innovating with digital tools. Not least because, as Bernardine Evaristo said at the Boundless Creativity launch: “Historically the arts has been the preserve of certain kinds of people, elite groups in our society, and we need to open it up.”

According to the Economist, 25 million people in the UK visited a cultural site online or attended a virtual event during lockdown. Why wouldn’t we want to sustain a longer relationship with those people? Early evidence indicates that through digital work “cultural providers are reaching a richer and more diverse audience than traditional physical performances, including Black and Asian audiences”.

That’s worth trying to cultivate and that means being open to digital’s many possibilities.