I love theatre. I am currently a theatre minor and I love it immensely. I love being in shows, seeing shows my friends are in and seeing shows with my friends. I love the hard work that everyone puts into it. The desire to (sometimes) keep the fourth wall and lead the audience into another world. The theatre world is dazzling, jaw dropping and inspiring. Which is why everyone should experience it more often.

Not only is theatre, which includes plays, musicals, improv shows, and many other forms, entertaining and fun, it’s educational. A lot of shows mask the hard truths and big opinions behind catchy one liners or emotional tunes. It can inform you of people’s opinions politically, socially, academically and more. Theatre can be fun and a distraction from life, but it can also be uncomfortable.

No one wants to watch a horrific rape scene. to see the victim lying there crying, delivering a shaky monologue or simply lying there soundless. That’s not entertaining. But seeing it is necessary. With theatre, you can tell people whatever you want. You can relay stories of merriment and joy or of unspeakable horrors. You can tell people what they may or may not want to hear.

Theatre should be offensive. It should give you something to ponder when you leave. Not enough people are subjecting themselves to offensive theatre.

Now some would say that theatre should only be enjoyable not offensive. That people don’t go to a show to ponder life but to forget about it. I think those people aren’t seeing enough shows. Offensive theatre is the fictional world brought to life. We can see an abusive relationship first hand, knowing in the back of our minds it is not real, yet allowing ourselves to believe it is.

Offensive theatre is like a controlled environment. The audience can see horrors beyond belief. Evil, terrible people and their evil, terrible thoughts but with no repercussions on the real world. And seeing an offensive show, where racism is alive and present, or rape, or murder, or other horrible things, reminds us what lies in the world. It reminds us of what others may face. It also reminds us to check ourselves and our lives, so that the horrors on stage do not follow us into the real world.

If every show we see is light-hearted with no political/social agenda and was just there for people to forget their lives, it would get really boring.

People need to see the world for how it is. We cannot throw ourselves into the dark, out of sight of opinions or facts that we dislike. Just because a show has ideas that are very disagreeable does not mean it is a bad show or that it shouldn’t be seen. And when the show is over, the entire audience may say they hated it, but it strikes the question “Why?”.

Now, I’m not saying every show you see is offensive. Shows that make me forget my life, in a good way, are important too. But not enough people are seeing a show that makes their skin itch or their left eye twitch. So be more adventurous with seeing a show. If something looks offensive, or scary, or possibly unpleasant, go see it. And when its over, tell everyone why. Why it made your skin crawl, your blood boil, your eye twitch.