Audience

A brief description of the Algiers theatre audience.
People walk into the theatre in the middle of the show with a loud Salaam...to the entire audience.

Cell phones ring, people answer.

Audience members tend to speak directly to the actors--I'm not sure if they just can't contain themselves or if they are just so into the show that they can't help themselves.

Every piece of decor that is flown in gets an applause!

Flash photography all over the place and the actors don't seem to notice.

During a performance of a Palestinian company's production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House" the director got so mad at a woman talking on her cell phone that he grapped it out of her hands and threw it out the hall door. The entire audience turned to watch that scene instead of the stage.

After two shows a day for 5 days I finally stopped resisting and thought--why not? Why should we sit and watch a show passively!? Why not applaud the decor? Scene designers so often get forgotten about! Why not chitty chat as I watch? I might be more engaged!? But the cell phone thing and the flash thing...no way.

Standing outside the TNA chatting with an actor friend a hot shot director comes over and I introduce myself as Kabylo-American. The fellow shook his finger at me and said: your passport says Algerian. Not Kabyle.

Tomorrow I finally land in Bejaia.