Pop music at theatres

Press, 14 March 1985, Page 16

Pop music at theatres

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Soviet teenagers are flocking to the theatre, not to acquaint themselves with high Russian culture, but to dance in discotheques laid on after plays, a Soviet actress has complained. Writing in the newspaper, “Sovetskaya Rossiya,” the actress sa’id that teenagers, already tipsy on wine, arrived in her theatre up to 90 minutes before her plays

finished and began playing pop music at full blast in the foyer. The article, by Miss N. Khonina, said that youths filled the balconies and, impatient for the final curtain, made derisory smacking noises with their lips if actors and actresses kissed on stage. Theatre managements were obliged to hold discotheques after the plays

to fill the annual quota of ticket sales for their establishments, Miss Khonina said.

“A theatre is a temple where people should go for emotional pleasure ... in evening clothes and not in shabby jeans,” she said. “Today our young spectator goes to the theatre just to hop on the floor, while we try to fill him with serious problems.”