Alone at Theater

In my years of theater going, I was usually alone.  Since theater going for me is not a social entertainment as it is for many but a study project more like going to the library to read, I did not miss having a companion.  I rather liked being alone at the theater and be able to concentrate on what goes on the stage without a companionable distraction.  Moreover, sitting with someone we experience the performance separately, not together, since we don’t chat obviously as we should not.  We could engage in silent communication, like glancing at each other to frown, smile , or nod, but I am not naturally inclined to do these things either.  With a friend at a theater, we can exchange notes during the intermission or, before and after the performance if there was no intermission as is often the case with contemporary plays lasting an hour and a half or even less. 

So together with a friend at theater, we are each alone, interacting with the performers and their performance rather than with each other.  Yet together we are not really alone.  Having settled in New York, by and by I made several theater companions, some for dance, others for opera, and still others for straight theater. Then, I came to realize that there is a special pleasure in seeing a particular play together with a friend of shared taste, sitting next to each other, rather than separately on a separate night.  That is because, I believe, each live performance is unique in that the performance itself, as well as the audience, and therefore the vibration felt between them as well, is different from night to night.  Comparing notes is much more finely tuned when we see the same performance together with the same audience around us, anonymous as it is, than when we see the same play separately on different nights.  The companionship at theater, rather than a distraction, in fact can add to and enrich the pleasure of experiencing the theater by oneself.