Felt like I should not let it's ridiclousness in existing to go to waste.
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Every Halloween many people flock to their local theatres at midnight to engage in a cinema tradition: the midnight movie. Dressed in their trashiest finery, they go downtown to catch the midnight showing of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Even if they are only going there for a good time, a thought may not cross their minds. The ‘art’ of Rocky Horror is not just in it’s on-screen performances by Tim Curry or Barry Boswick or in the songs or costumes and set designs. The art in Rocky Horror is delivered thru its audience. Although different beasts, the cult classic ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and early performance art do have some similarities in concept.
Avant-Garde artists in the 1960s were looking for new forms of inspiration and expression; they found themselves making temporary works that were later called ‘performance art’. “In such work, movements, gestures, and sounds of persons communication with an audience, whose members may or may not participate in the event, replace physical objects.” 1 This included things like throwing paint at blank canvases, swimming in mud to shape it, or covering oneself in honey and sitting with a dead rabbit. The expanses of performance art are endless.
If one has been to a live showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show, it’s pretty obvious that the viewers are not idly watching the movie. They are not so much viewer as they are willing participants. The audience has certain obligations to the movie, like shouting things at appropriate times, throwing rice, toast, or toilet paper, or covering their heads with newspapers. One completely removed from society since ‘Rocky Horror’ became a cult phenomenon could easily think that they were watching some kind of weird performance art, since many of the showings and audience participation are very refined.
In theatres where the movie plays on a regular basis, fans have even formed casts. They act out the movie on the floor in front of the movie scene. Many of these actors can perform the whole movie without even looking at the screen and this act really strengthens the ties between performance art and rocky horror, having actually artists in the room. Most theatres even have a pre-show act of ‘performance art’ by finding those in the audience who have never seen the movie before. People who’ve never seen it before are called virgins, and before the movie starts regulars to the movie, usually the shadow casts, go on a ‘virgin’ hunt. They sometimes make them do humiliating things in the spirit of the film. They write ‘V’s with lipstick on their foreheads and make them fake orgasm in the front of the theatre. Different theatres had different traditions, but many make the most out of the fun tradition and make these new viewers ‘one of them’.
A difference between ‘Rocky Horror’ and performance art is that the viewers in a way become artists. Adding dialog to shout back at screen, creation of costumes for the event, and other participatory elements creates an atmosphere of creativity, even if it is within set perimeters of the movie. Every watcher becomes an artist in their reaction, in the act of throwing cards or bread or rice. Every viewer becomes artist by contributing to the act of watching. Is art still art when there is no one looking? Perhaps, but Rocky Horror is nothing without its audience. Before finding a home to the lovers of camp and midnight showings, Rocky Horror was a disaster at the box office.
Like performance art, after the last seat has been emptied, the last bit of cards and toast swept up, there is no object left. The object isn’t’ the point, like performance art, the point of rocky horror is that there is no ‘object’ left behind. There is no trace left behind for later generations to enjoy. While later generations may enjoy going to Rocky Horror at midnight themselves, it will never be the same way twice. The movie may last a couple hours, but the act of togetherness it creates is momentary, while the idea lasts forever as memory. All that is left is some photographs, memories, and the feeling it gave you as a participant and artist, and all you can hope for is that the theatre hurries up and shows it again, so you can be part of the experience and memory again.
Biblography
Kleiner, Fred S., Mamiya Christin J. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages.12th Ed. Vol. II Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2005
