Theater is being portrayed as harmful to its own potential by prioritizing comfort over confrontation
The author frames the current trend in theater as a betrayal of the medium’s unique capacity to provoke, using emotionally charged metaphors like 'a punch to the gut' to suggest that avoiding discomfort is artistically damaging.
“Why pat people on the back when what they really need — and what live performance is uniquely poised to deliver — is a punch to the gut?”
