SEVERAL YEARS ago British theatre critic Michael Billington lamented what he called “the fashionable tyranny of the 90-minute play”. He blamed the custom of dining out post-theatre and the shrinking attention span of audiences, and argued that the “new compressionism” was preventing theatre from engaging with big social and political issues of the day in the epic form such themes demanded.
Contrary to Billington's trend, however, "marathon theatre" has been a recurring element of the Dublin Theatre Festival. In 2007, Druid Theatre's production of Long Day's Journey Into Nighttested its audience with a four-and-a-half hour running time, and in 2008 the festival offered Elevator Repair Service's epic Gatz, which ran at seven-and-a-half hours, including three intervals. This year, Factory 2recreates the Andy Warhol Project. Duration? Seven-and-a-half hours.
So, what does marathon theatre give us that we can't get in 90 minutes? Well you can fit a lot more plot: Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude(nine hours) charts the history of a single family over the course of heroine Nina Leeds's life. Shakespeare's three Henry plays are often produced back-to-back (12 hours), allowing the fate of an entire dynasty to unfold. But marathon theatre is about more than mere storytelling.
With Gatzand the forthcoming Factory 2,story is secondary to the audience's experience, which is crucially bound up with the cathartic effect of participation in an extensive act of temporal sacrifice. Marathon theatre turns an evening's entertainment into a feat of endurance; an "event" rather than a diversion; an incomparable shared experience with fellow survivors. The question is, are you hard enough?
Marathon theatre survival tips
1. Comfortable clothes: Elasticated trousers/skirt and slip-on shoes are preferable. You will be sitting for a very long time and will experiment with a variety of postures, including the feet-on-seat variety.
2. A stopwatch: To remind yourself that time hasn’t actually stopped, and that there are only 449 minutes to go.
3. Snacks: For Factory 2, there will be two intervals; including an hour-long dinner break. But your blood sugar will be surging and plummeting as the show goes on, so bring some snacks (nothing with pesky crinkly wrappers please).
4. A bladder of steel: Two intervals over seven-and-a-half hours really aren’t enough.
5. A friend: To keep you focused when the going gets tough. To hold you down if you decide to bolt.
