“Agreed, commercial theatre is too expensive. And, agreed, theatre, unlike TV and film, doesn’t always look like ‘real life’. And, yes, theatre can seem middle class and unexciting – particularly when, like these critics, you judge the entire art form on the basis of a few middle-of-the-road West End examples. Theatre, though, is alive. The performers are right there, their awfulness (if awful they be) as hard to avoid as beads of their sweat and spittle. Other people are there too, in the audience next to you. Theatre is an inescapably communal, corporeal experience.”