Quite the Pleasure

Apparently some can get the same dopamine rush from the sound of a tweet as they can from an orgasm. This may explain the addictive nature of texting and twitter. And it is this response that we often try to generate in our theatre audience when we write, direct or act. As artists we want our viewers to feel invigorated, challenged, provoked, transported and changed. In Indian performing arts, there is a name for this heightened state of being. It is called rasa. Tom Stoppard described rasa as “what you must feel when you see a painting or hear music; it is the emotion which the artist must arouse in you.” It is rapture, divinity, and transcendence. This year, there were four productions that brought me close to the experience of rasa: Sam Gold’s Fun Home, Thomas Kail’s Hamilton, Ivo Von Hove’s View from a Bridge (all on Broadway) and Richard Eyre’s Ghosts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Lucky for me, it was quite a pleasurable year all round.