That really stays with people.
To make an audience stop and think.
To consider something they might not have considered before.
To become more aware of their own way of seeing.
I like open endings.
Though I think Iâd rather call them âsudden endingsâ.
I donât want to deny the audience catharsis.
Theyâre allowed to feel relieved, angry, moved, unsatisfied â perhaps something completely different from the person sitting beside them.
But the play doesnât say:
Applause.
Goodbye.
Think of the Little Prince and the fox: familiarity creates responsibility.
Iâve got nothing against feel-good stories. Quite the opposite. They matter.
And Iâm very capable of disappearing into escapism myself.
I want to put an idea in front of an audience â and theyâll question it, challenge it, see things in it that I donât.
And that exchange might take the thought somewhere neither of us could have got to alone.