Extract:

Many can and have asked why theatre is written, performed and watched. Many solutions have been proposed- that it is educational, purely for entertainment, allows for reflection and provokes thought. That it inspires revolutions, or quashes them. That it captures reality, or distances itself from it. Something that has so many ‘whys’ is quite possibly impossible to define in those terms. Therefore, perhaps a better question is ‘when?’. All of the above have great importance when applied to a particular moment in time. Art is educational only in relation to the time it is being seen and absorbed, and entertains only when the material is appropriate to its audience. Thought, reflection and political consideration apply to the moment, and reality is relative to time itself. This could all be seen to be self-evident, so then why are we so obsessed with telling and re-telling the same old stories?