Never explain your work!

Not long ago I presented extracts from Sandman at Thrust's fabulous Scratch Night 'No Storm' in London. Because I wanted to try out some scenes half way into the show, I felt compelled to tell the audience a few things about the piece, so that they have a better understanding of what was going on. At the end of the evening an audience member (she said she was a dramaturg) took me aside, looked me firmly in the eyes and said: "Never explain your work! Let it speak for itself! Let the audience make sense of it." This idea has since stayed with me. I agree in principle. I am very grateful for her advice; it brought back into focus an idea explored in the making of Sandman. When we decided to break up the chronology of the story, and create fragments that jump forward and backward in time, we wanted each fragment to be connected to all the other fragments, so that the audience can constantly make connections between them and put them together like pieces in a puzzle. We wanted the audience to be active, not passive. So thank you for reminding me that I don't need to explain, the audience can work it out for themselves!
PS Come and see the show on March, 25th at The Place, and let me know whether it works!