October 29th The Art of Passion

The reasons for my embarking on this blog include the theatre critics! So often I go to see a play, then look back over the reviews and reflect on how unhelpful the reviewers have been. They’ve usually seen the show at a “press night”, they’ve see it through their own peculiar prism of a life spent peering at performers while honing pithy phrases, to upload instantly to their publication or website – often within minutes of the last actor traipsing off into the wings. Then whatever they’ve come up with hangs about in print and on the Web, affecting ticket sales, affecting other people’s enjoyment or otherwise of the piece, and very often affecting actors’ chances of future employment. 

Now, I know a) that this is the Way of the World, and nothing can be done about it, and b) that what I write is yet another personal, partial reaction, but I try to offer a perspective as one who’s been involved with the craft for decades, who finds inordinate fun in the whole process, and wishes all who set out on the high-wire at least a few cheers and maybe a decent parachute!

Take for instance, the comments in that otherwise fine paper, the “i”, about “King Lear” at the Almeida. Jonathan Pryce is faintly praised for “a lucidly pondered” performance as the King in Michael Attenborough’s “considered” production, in which “both fall short of the emotional extremity that the tragedy requires….” Eh? Not the night I saw it! It’s a cracking, brilliantly paced production and Jonathan Pryce, for my money, has pulled off a fantastic sequel to the best “Hamlet” I’ve ever seen, at the Royal Court back in 1980. Like the Hamlet, this King Lear is an unsettling maverick, edgy and unpredictable, who nonetheless takes you to the raw core of human experience, to the guts of the tragedy, and had me quietly weeping as he sat there holding the corpse of the once-beloved daughter he has spurned and cursed.

  

There’s also a fine set of supporting performances all round, including a sharp Geordie Fool from Trevor Fox, and a strong, rather scary Goneril from one of our mentors at  www.teachyourselfacting.com, the always superb Zoe Waites. Zoe came along to talk with the NYU students last week, bringing lots of insight into the painstaking process top classical actors go through in rehearsal to bring us performances of this calibre.

Talking of painstaking work, the “i” has redeemed itself by placing under the banner “If You Only See One Thing Today” the Tricycle Theatre production of “Red Velvet”. If you have any interest at all in the art of acting, and want to see a truly remarkable example of good, well-researched historical story-telling matched with quite brilliant performances – then GO AND SEE THIS – you’ve only a fews more days left! 



As it happens, Adrian Lester, who stars as the real-life, great 19th century actor Ira Aldrige, and the playwright Lolita Chakrabarti are both RADA graduates, serving as distinguished members of the academy’s council, and Charlotte Lucas (pictured here playing Ellen Tree) is yet another former student from my time in Gower St. Their talents combine with those of an equally talented company to create a unique, quite startling  event. If you’ve ever looked at those old prints of actors striking dramatic poses and wondered how such odd-seeming behaviour could move huge audiences to profound grief, joy and wonder, then these actors show how. Adrian is to move on to the National and create his own version of Othello in the spring of next year – notes to be made in the diary.