I try to not sweat the small stuff. If I flunk a quiz, I resolve to study harder for the next one. If the wait for food is long, I never fume at the workers. Nonetheless, some of the decisions that I weigh heavily others might regard as trivial. Take my desktop background as an example. Over the last week, I agonized over whether or not Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” would offend anyone sitting behind me. After all, Venus stands sans clothes, clearly portrayed as an attractive goddess of love and beauty. I certainly would harshly consider someone sitting in front of me revealed a desktop of a shirtless Talylor Lauten. On that note, I started wondering where that fine line between the artistic value of the human form and cheap desire lies.
All of this is relevant to theatre because “The Curse of Starving Class” includes brief nudity. Nudity in theatre is not new, but this was the first time I had seen it on stage. It’s a weird thing to spring on an audience, perhaps, but the action itself fit into the plot appropriately. There’s nothing offensive or provocative about it. If you buy a ticket for “Curse,” though, the box office will warn you of brief nudity. I want to respond to our culture’s approach to nudity, especially in the context of art or communication. Why are we less comfortable with something natural like the body than with unnatural acts like violence and murder? Remember, a film with nudity will garner a higher MPAA rating than one with violence.
It’s perhaps out of the scope of this blog, but the best example I can think of is Cuarón’s “Y tu Mamá También.” To be brief, this film explicitly shows the characters having sex. It’s not glamorous or glorified, but portrayed as something the protagonists use to mature and understand each other. In contrast, consider “300,” in which the sex is clearly nonessential and meant to excite its targeted audience. If these were plays, I could understand a warning about the second sort, but why the first?
I acknowledge that I’ve raised more questions than I’ve answered, but the whole thing has been bothering me since I saw “Curse” last night. What are your thoughts on the matter? Sound off in the comments below.
i like nudity