Tim Etchells 8 fragments of Theatre and the City explores different thoughts and ideas about performing in and about cities. I found the Observation/Coincidence fragment to be the most interesting “did you understand that the city was always about glimpsing other lives?” (Etchell, 1999, p.78)
I find it so baffling that we walk past several people in a day and share the same walking space as them yet know nothing about their lives. We make snap judgements when we look at people and decide what they do in their lives just by the way they look or walk, and when we could talk to them we don’t. Etchell describes the most extreme form of this as the escalator “where we pass each other as if objects on a production line”, “We watch each other, getting closer, and then just when we could speak, or even touch, our eyes drop and the moment passes.” (Etchell, 1999,p.78)
So many of these moment occur at various times throughout the day, cars in traffic, stopping at a level crossing waiting for a train to pass, waiting at a pedestrian crossing; we all keep to ourselves and don’t take the time to notice the others around us, we become aware of the people and choose to keep our eyes down to avoid awkward eye contact or conversation that you don’t want to take part in. Why do we do this? Why don’t we all speak to everyone we see, would the streets be happier places to be? This section in the 8 fragments raises all these types of questions and really made me think about just stopping and taking the time to notice the people around me.

Bibliography:
Etchell, T. (1999) Certain Fragments. London: Routledge.