In his new book, Skin In The Game: Hidden Asymmetries In Daily Life, Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes about how minority groups can move the majority.
Although the orthodox Jews that only eat and drinks kosher food makes up less than one per cent of the American population, a much higher percentage of food and beverages available in stores are kosher. In the U.K., where observant Muslims make up about three to four per cent of the population, a much higher percentage of restaurants and stores do not sell pork.
The reason, Taleb explains, is simple. Kosher and halal eaters will never eat nonkosher or nonhalal food but people who don't follow either Judaism or Islam are free to eat their food.
He then extends the equation into other areas.
People in wheelchairs will not use the washroom that can't accommodate them but walking people can easily use wheelchair accessible washrooms. People with peanut allergies can't eat food with traces of peanut but people without the allergy can eat food without peanuts in them.
In other words, it's often easy for a majority to change its preferences to suit a minority, sometimes without even noticing the change, as in kosher food.
Theatre Northwest is going to unpack its own asymmetric relationship with its audience this weekend with a relaxed performance of The Best Brothers on Saturday afternoon.
Relaxed performances are geared towards people who, for a variety of physical and/or psychological reasons, may not be able to sit through an entire act of a show and need to step outside before the intermission or the end of the play. That could be anything from parents with infants to people who have a learning or intellectual disability or who are particularly sensitive to sound and/or light.
As a result, the sound and the light of the show are tuned down and made less dramatic. The house lights are kept up enough to allow people to safely come and go as they need. A quiet space is set aside in the lobby. The cast introduce themselves and the play before the show starts.
Theatre Northwest already did this earlier this season for Hedda Noir and it offered an all-day workshop last week for others in the performing arts to see how it works and how it can be easily implemented into their programming.
Put another way, anyone can attend a relaxed performance but not everyone can attend a regular theatrical show.
There's that nagging word - regular - and how it passively aggressively dominates the discussion. There is nothing irregular or abnormal about a relaxed performance or kosher food or a wheelchair-accessible building or washroom. Done properly, the change is so seamless that the audience (or the eater or the washroom user) doesn't really notice the difference.
Relaxed performances are cropping up in a variety of other ways. Some touring big-name music acts have eased off on the light show and backed down on the sound, not just the volume but the timbre and pitch as well. Others are offering dark glasses and ear plugs. Some are playing shows with a sign language interpreter at the side of the stage, signing during the singing parts or when the band is talking to the audience.
None of these changes affects the quality of the show and the acts that have toured with signing interpreters have earned praise for their progressive approach, not to mention for developing new audiences.
In some cases, it adds to the show. There is a great YouTube video of an ASL interpreter working a Kendrick Lamar concert with at least as much energy and creativity as the rapper to spit out his rhymes, including all of the swear words.
Taleb points out in his book about how these kind of small but significant changes to accommodate others happen all the time in the marketplace, from organic and non-GMO food to automatic-transmission automobiles, where the minority can move the majority.
It's too soon to say whether Theatre Northwest's relaxed performances will become more common but the marketplace will also dictate that, as well. If "regular" theatre audiences find they're fine with the relaxed performances or even like them better, much like people who can drive standard still buy an automatic for the convenience, then relaxed performances could potentially become the norm.
Good for Theatre Northwest for leading the way in Prince George and showing others in the local entertainment industry how to make the transition.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
