If you need to take a drink to make a Shakespeare play more palatable, why go in the first place?
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Does liquor have to accompany every activity?
I guess so.
The Park District of Oak Park could soon permit alcohol at Oak Park Festival Theatre performances at Austin Gardens.
For years, spectators have been bringing alcohol to performances and park district officials say there haven’t been problems. They probably mean there haven’t been any roaring drunks.
And, Paul Aeschleman, park board president, said allowing liquor at Festival Theatre performances “will make everyone’s lives a little more pleasant.”
I’m not so sure about that. Booze tends to make people chatty. I don’t know about you, but for me the play’s the thing. I want to hear what the actors say, not what the audience says.
Park district officials probably are right that allowing liquor at performances will not result in playgoers drunk off their butts.
But theater and music are not just background for eating, drinking and chatting. They demand, and should get, attention in themselves.
I’ve been to Ravinia several times. But I’ve sat on the lawn only once. On Ravinia’s lawn, the symphonies of Beethoven, the operas of Verdi become literal background music to the clinking of bottles and glasses, the rustle of picnic fare being unwrapped and unending chit-chat.
But at least at Ravinia you can get away from the art-killing noise by sitting in the pavilion.
And you can’t argue that liquor is consumed at all sporting events with no lessening of enjoyment.
Theater and music are different from sports. Sports communicate by seeing. Sports fans can – and do – drink and shout without destroying the event they are watching.
But music and theater communicate by sound more than sight. Music and theater must be heard to be successful.
The more audience members do things other than watch and listen to a play, the more difficult it is for other audience members to enjoy the play.
There also are some fears expressed that allowing liquor at some park district events will embolden people to drink in the parks and at other activities.
Could be. Who knows?
We Americans might like theater, music and parks.
But for sure we love our liquor.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
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