Just came back from Jonathan Lim's delightful "supernatural musical" H Is For Hantu. I came out with a nagging thought after painfully watching actor Ghazali Muzakir trying to convince the lacklustre crowd to clap and sing along with him ala dikir barat -- with little success. Is it me or does anyone else think that audiences here have this kind of "prove yourself to me first" mentality?  I get that in many ways, it's a market. There's a product (a play) and there's a consumer (the viewer). But isn't theatre also a communal experience? Shouldn't it work both ways? Actors offer what they can as actors, the same way audiences offer what they can as audiences. Don't you think it's more fun and meaningful if you step inside a theatre without thinking "Okay, I paid money for this, now go and entertain me". Instead: "Okay, let's begin the engagement."