Going to the theater in Bishkek is always entertaining and not only because the tickets are affordable and the performances enjoyable (accept for that rendition of Carmen . . . shudder). No, the theater is great fun because the audience provides endless, awful distraction. Here are some examples.
During a ballet performance of Giselle at the Opera-Ballet Theater, audience members wearing gowns and wrapped in furs answered their phones (which rang at regular volume) to say, “Sorry, I can’t talk right now! I’m in the theater. Yeah, the ballet. It’s pretty good. Okay, okay . . . call you later.” My friend Nora and I – solid plebeians in our own country – cursed the uncultured oafs throughout the performance.
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| The theater may be beautiful, but it is filled with chattering plebians. |
On another occasion, I went to see a professional Swiss violinist at the Philharmonic who was performing with members of the Kyrgyz National Orchestra. The woman sitting behind us – who attended alone and was clearly a music lover – searched noisily through her plastic bag for snacks through the performance. Every time I leaned back to let the power and beauty of the music sink in – rustle, rustle, rustle; munch, munch, munch. Perhaps classical music is best enjoyed with potato chips?
However, the coup de grace was seeing The Hunger Games at Ala Too Theater. While I’d assumed that movie theater culture couldn’t possibly be more annoying than it was at formal performances, I was wrong. The movie was a free-for-all, with audience members answering their phones, talking loudly with one another without cease, and stomping up and down the steps during important scenes. Rue is dying, you say? Sorry I didn’t notice. I was too busy listening to my neighbor’s telephone conversation.
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| Ala Too Movie Theater, haunt of gossiping teens and jigits being jigits. |
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This approach to theater is a cultural difference that I will learn to live with, but not adopt. I firmly believe that, out of respect for the artists and the cost of the tickets, theaters should be free of cell phones. Conversations – when necessary – should be whispered. If it’s not a medical emergency, what could possibly be so important that it necessitates disrupting everyone else’s experience?
2 comments:
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Kyrgyzstan? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Kyrgyzstan in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Applause. Agreement. Touche.
"Except"
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