from The Guardian
You know you're in for it when the article starts like this.
Theatre is irrelevant to most of the population and audiences have been drifting away for decades.
DAMN. This is a really good article, and I think I'm gonna have to call it a must read for theatre-folk everywhere. Check out this excerpt, one of my favorites.
The most depressing response I encounter when I'm chatting someone up and I ask them if they ever go to the theatre is this: "I should go but I don't." That emphatic "should" tells you all you need to know. Imagine it in other contexts: "I should play Grand Theft Auto"; "I should watch Strictly Come Dancing." That "should" tells you that people see theatre-going not as entertainment but as self-improvement, and the critical/ academic establishment have to take some blame for that.
