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Een week na de première van Cloaca schrijft Maria een e-mail naar alle Old Vic medewerkers. Ze vraagt zich af hoe het kan dat de reactie van het bezoekend publiek haaks staat op de ontvangst van de pers. Hiermee een fragment uit haar brief aan hen:
“But… the people, also British people are enjoying the show intensely. That’s what Kevin told me, that’s what Jeremy and David told me and that’s what Dutch friends of ours, who saw the show a few days after our awful press night, told me. They are responding to the show with rounds and a warm applause.
Now my question is: how can this be? How on earth is this possible! It seems to me that there is an establishment, quite conventional and a little xenophobic, that, for a complex of reasons, hates the play.
And there is a new, younger, potential theatre audience, unfortunately without a strong voice in the media, with a more open mind who absolutely has a complete different experience.
Am I giving a realistic view of the situation?
Or might it be, and please help me out with this, that the play isn’t working the way we hoped because of a cultural difference?
Are there plays, well spoken of by the critics, and loved by the non-established audience?
What is your idea about this all? Please, let me know. I am going to have a few meetings with writers who are familiar with both countries, to hear from them what they think about this.”