Can theatre be saved?

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I got a chance to talk to thespians about theatre. Ok, from the top, it is no longer a secret that theatre is struggling, in fact, theatre has been struggling around the globe.

I usually tell people about my visit to Spain in 2022 for a theatre congress. At the time, I knew theatre was struggling around the world, but I did not know the context of the struggle in other places.

So on a cold Wednesday, I find myself in Theatre Romea in the heart of Barcelona, I was tired since earlier on, I had been to the Camp Nou, no, not to watch the Barcelona/Bayern game which was taking place that day, I was there for the feel, I wanted to know what the UCL game night felt like and after that I was off to theatre.

Our theatre show was starting slightly a few minutes after 10 pm, which is really late compared to Ugandan showtimes. I was even afraid these people wouldn’t get numbers, considering the fact that the congress seemed to insist the theatre was struggling everywhere, including Spain.

I was wrong, that place was sold out and I later learnt that even the earlier show before ours had sold out.

So I asked my friend, she’s called Laura, like what did they mean that theatre is struggling? Because in Uganda, our version of theatre struggling is really profound, shows at times attract less than 20 people at times slightly above 50, and that’s a good day even.

Anyway, I learnt that they considered theatre struggling because the funding was going down and so did the audience, where shows used to stay in theatre for about 11 months, now they were doing six months or even four.

I told her shows in Uganda rarely do more than a weekend.

What I noticed though, is the fact that they have been arresting their crisis before it is a bigger problem; In Uganda, we probably saw theatre lose her numbers and somehow just moved on with life.

Thespians were rich, the money was coming and many had become celebrities, so they were in TV shows, adverts, music videos and they had become either media personalities or singers, they kind of forgot to feed the theatre which made them.

The audience dwindled until shows were being seen by less than 100 people.

When I made a presentation at the Kampala Theatre and Performing Arts Festival, organised by the amazing Mariam Ndagire, I highlighted the fact that Ugandan theatre did not arrest crises before they destroyed them.

It had gone on before Covid but of course, the pandemic happened and sped up the collapse.

During the conversation, I learnt that Bat Valley was almost taken and both Mariam and Abbey Mukiibi sold property to rescue it, how the media never got wind of that story, it’s unbelievable.

But the one thing I learnt through interactions was the fact that the world moved, advertising moved, production shifted, the audience shifted, theatre dynamics shifted and so did the point of views of the world, and yet, theatre in Uganda somehow stood in the same place; a glorious place but the same, old and very unrelatable.

Can it be saved?

Written by

Kaggwa Andrew

Ugandan Arts and Culture Journalist. Film and theatre enthusiast. Photojournalist.

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