Final Friday Night
Our last Friday. It was raining.
So we did our 3rd indoors show. Started at a real lick. Lotsa pace and aggression. I forget how darkly the play begins – threat of death to a girl who disobeys her father's will. I got the impression the audience was pretty clued-up about the play. They were following it really closely. So we had to encourage them to like the silly, knockabout stuff as well as the beautiful, profound things. And they did. All of us told the story very clearly. And they were laughing a lot and enjoying themselves. The final play within the play was excellent – really took off.
The director challenged us to shake ourselves out of our complacency and comfort zones which we've all fallen into in the last few weeks. Its kinda natural. We get used to doing things – standing here, moving there, delivering the punchline like this – mostly because it has worked well so far. But if we treat the audience and the event as a new one each night we have to discover everything afresh and this makes the production spontaneous and immediate. It was very rich last night. I found all sorts of new things and wondered why I haven't been doing this before. Demetrius had a whole new dimension to him. I was a little distant – thinking about a friend of mine who I just seen off on a train back to London and I was missing her. It was a kicking show therefore. Especially the scene where Demetrius tells Hermia that he loves her and she rejects him. Don't remember too much about that one. Pretty emotional. Coupla pints after helped.
Totally forgot to plug my Mum's show. Her drama group do a Fringe production each year and this year are doing "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime" – based on an Oscar Wilde story. I saw a dress rehearsal because our shows overlap. Its very good. They got 4 Stars in the Evening News and thoroughly deserve it. They're very good at Oscar Wilde or Shaw or anything 19th/20th Century. Their actors know about those old-fashioned essentials like posture, deportment, projection, etiquette, even a simple thing like how to fold their hands and cross their legs. Its amazing watching them because they do it unconsciously – younger actors like me have to work hard at these foreign manners. Its an education to observe. A current trend is that it doesn't matter how actors stand, sit, behave on stage because its more about their pyschological landscape and their emotional agonies than anything else. I think this is misguided. And obstructive when it comes to performing anything older than John Osbourne's work. I don't particularly care about what actors personally are FEELING. Feeling is a byproduct of Though. I do want to hear what they're saying and know what they want and I hope they have the stagecraft to best display this to an audience. I think this is what we spend a lifetime learning. There is always a better way to present something, a better way to say it. We're lucky we've had a long run at this play to discover all the ways we can. And watching older actors like those in the Makars diligently going about their work is the best inspiration we have.
A Dutch lady saw us in the pub after and she offered her congratulations. She liked the play very much. And she said the audience and the players "Were as one". There is no higher compliment.
