Is It Curtains For The Curtain Call?

In a blog posting on the Guardian website, theatre critic Matt Wolf bemoans the demise of the curtain call in London.

"More recent curtain calls have merely tended towards the frustrating," writes Wolf. "It's surely unfair to the labors of a cast, not least on press night, for them to come out for a third call amidst darkness, as was the case last night at In Celebration until someone somewhere was generous enough to illuminate the stage. At the opening night of Marianne Elliott's blistering production of Saint Joan, a rapt audience was clearly ready to prolong applause that seemed curtailed - the British tendency towards self-denial, perhaps, extending itself to such theatrical niceties."

The British have never been the kind of people to wear their feelings on their sleeves, and in my years of going to see productions in the U.K. I haven't notice much of a change in the length and ardor of curtain calls. Other nations, like the Russians, on the other hand, will allow a curtain call to go on for 15 - 20 minutes given half a chance.

Curtain calls in the U.S., in my experience, are extremely curt, though I think American audiences are among the most appreciative around. Standing ovations are extremely common, even when the product on stage hardly merits a watered-down clap. Yet they'll stand and whoop for about 20 seconds. After that, it's time to rescue the car from the valet and beat the traffic.

Much though the cast and crew deserve acknowledgment, I don't think the absence of applause is something to complain about. Ending on a euphoric note and/or breaking the spell of a performance just doesn't feel right sometimes. Take Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, which came to Brava Theater Center in San Francisco a couple of years ago. The production ended without applause. The lights went up. We left, feeling, quite rightly, deeply disturbed by the story we'd experienced on stage. To have introduced a curtain call at this point would have seemed facile.

Finally, actors don't always look to the final applause for feedback about their performance. They can "feel" the vibe of the house throughout the performance. The audience's reactions are not something that make themselves felt just at the end when the curtain comes down. The actors get a sense of how things are going over right from the start. Last night at Kiki & Herb's show at A.C.T., the crowd went wild. Then again, they made their pleasure felt from the very start, and I'm sure the performers knew it.

Different cultures show their appreciation for theatrical performances in different ways. And different kinds of productions merit different reactions. I don't think prescribing standards about how people should react from the stalls makes much sense.