The first anniversary of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots, Part 2, has just passed, an anniversary marked with cake filled with broken glass and decorated with candles in the shape of police cars.
Despite the (entirely correct) condemnation of the rioters as a bunch of drunken, selfish yahoos, it now seems a good time to note that a hockey loss is far from the oddest reason anyone has ever seen for a riot. At least with sports-based riots, you expect rowdiness. Whether it's wine-soaked chariot fanboys in Ancient Rome or modern, beer-guzzling soccer hooligans, you can at least see why the fans might have their blood up.
Yet some of the worst riots in history, even revolutions, have started in opera houses and theatres. Men in white ties and tails and women in ball gowns have been known to start punchups, brawl in the streets, smash windows, attack police and even overthrow governments.
Sometimes, the riots are sparked by a performance but have underlying political causes. In Brussels in 1830, a performance of the French opera La muette de Portici, about a patriotic rebellion in Italy in the 1600s, was one of the sparks that ignited the Belgian Revolution, in which Belgium split from the Netherlands. Opera fans fired up by a patriotic song headed out into the streets and joined a riot already in progress.
The Astor Place Riot in New York was not only a violent and bloody affray, it had few political causes other than an overabundance of patriotism.
William Charles Macready, an English actor, was playing the lead role in Macbeth at the newly built theatre in New York in 1849. The performance came after a long artistic rivalry with American Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest. Fans of Forrest showed up on opening night, catcalled Macready and called him a coward, and threw eggs, potatoes, lemons, coins and a shoe throughout a very rushed performance.
The fights inside the theatre spilled out and the army was called in; dozens died and hundreds of New York police and soldiers were injured in running street battles.
Then there was Alfred Jarry, the French playwright and allaround weirdo who managed to start a riot with the very first word uttered in the first - and only, in his lifetime - performance of his play Ubu Roi. The performance was in 1896, and the word was "merdre," which is only one letter away from the French for excrement (to put it politely).
The more conservative audience members started a 15-minute shoving match with the fans of avante garde theatre. When it subsided, the actor playing Ubu was allowed to say the second word of the play.
This was also merdre. A repeat performance of the fight immediately ensued.
Jarry was apparently quite pleased with the reception.
Finally, Igor Stravinsky's premiere of his ballet The Rite of Spring in Paris also caused a riot, at least in part because the audience was shocked by the high register of the bassoon! The police had to restore order during the intermission.
I admit to missing the theatrical riots. It's not that I want to see people hurt, but the idea of people being so invested in art that they're willing to pummel one another has some appeal.
It's probably good that people don't punch each other at poetry readings, but wouldn't you feel a little bit better about the world if you knew that the next movie by Michael Bay might be greeted with anger, thrown rocks and the arrival of the riot cops?
Matthew Claxton is a reporter with the Langley Advance, a sister paper of the Burnaby NOW.
