Creating a long-lasting impression

Unfortunately for the purposes of writing a review – which I generally will be if I’m at the theatre – you can’t know for sure which these will be until long after the copy has to be written and published.

Sometimes those that prove to be memorable aren’t the ones you expected.

Conversely, you can go to the theatre and thoroughly enjoy a work that a few months later you’ve completely forgotten you ever attended.

But there are early signs of lingering you learn to pick up on.

You may find yourself frowning over a bit of dialogue or action and wondering if your first impression of what it meant was the one the author or director intended.

Or, you wish you could go to see it again because you have the feeling you may have missed something vital that would answer the questions it has raised in your mind.

But perhaps the biggest clue is finding yourself strangely unable to answer the question ‘did you enjoy the play?’ It’s a simple question, but it isn’t always one that prompts a simple answer.

For one thing, ‘enjoy’ isn’t necessarily the right word.

Some works are designed to make you forget your cares and get carried away into a wonderful world of drama, music, dance or comedy – those are the ones you enjoy.

Others are meant to make you think, question and debate – also wonderful, but in such a different way that you really can’t compare the two.

It’s these that you find suddenly popping into your thoughts weeks, months, even years after you saw them.

You may still be unable to answer the question ‘did you enjoy it?’ but you do know that it had an impact, and that it meant something beyond escapism.

It reminds you of the power of both the written word and the dramatisation of those words to alter perceptions and open minds.

The Salberg Studio at Salisbury Playhouse is a venue to keep an eye on if you want to see something along those lines.

Last season’s productions of Nordost – based on the Moscow Theatre siege of 2002 – and the one-woman show Soldiers’ Wives, which explored the experiences of those left behind as wars are fought, are two recent examples.

The current double bill – Arthur Miller’s Elegy for a Lady and Brian Friel’s The Yalta Game – may well be another.

But as I won’t be able to say for sure until it’s been and gone, it may be best to go along and see for yourself.

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