Leontes, King of Sicily, is convinced that his queen, Hermione, is pregnant with King Polixenes of Bavaria's child. He is mistaken. His wild jealousy Leontes, King of Sicily, is convinced that his queen, Hermione, is pregnant with King Polixenes of Bavaria's child. He is mistaken. His wild jealousy kills both his son and the defamed queen. He casts off what he thinks is his illegitimate daughter, but she survives. Some years later we find ourselves on the "shores" of Bohemia — modern Bohemia is landlocked. It’s the kingdom of Polyxenes, the queen's imaginary lover. Then the reader gets into the low Rabelaisen humor provided by Autolycus and the Clown. Ah, and then the love story. Soon we wind up back in Sicily with the repentant Leontes, his daughter grown and now betrothed to the crown prince of Bohemia. Then there's the strangely moving resurrection of Hermione. . . .
But this is just plot. And as we know, reading for plot alone is to almost entirely miss a literary work's richest pleasures. Read, too, for the dazzling music of the language. It's poetry....more
A handbook for youngsters who want to act for a living. It morphs halfway through into a scathing critique of the once hallowed institution known as BA handbook for youngsters who want to act for a living. It morphs halfway through into a scathing critique of the once hallowed institution known as British theater— and this has relevance for the wannabe thespian, too. The book is useful because the author is merciless as a critic of his own work and that of his peers.
I floundered about with this profoundly difficult play (Jean Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine) knowing what was required but having only the vaguest idea of how to achieve it.” (p. 267)
In Part 1 Simon Callow writes about the nebulous motivations and techniques of acting with startling concreteness. The process is surprisingly rigorous. The trouble he had with the lead role in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus is an excellent example. After much struggle he picks up Otto Deutsch’s Mozart: A Documentary Biography and finds a quote from Mozart’s brother-in-law, Josef Lange.
’Never was Mozart less recognizably a great man in his conversation and actions than when he was busy with a great work. At such times he spoke confusedly and disconnectedly… he did not appear to be brooding and thinking about anything… either he intentionally concealed his inner tension behind superficial frivolity, for reasons which could not be fathomed, or he took delight in throwing into sharp contrast the divine ideas of his music and these sudden outbursts of vulgar platitudes, and in giving himself pleasure by seeming to make fun of himself. I can understand that so exalted an artist can, out of a deep veneration for his Art, belittle and as it were expose to ridicule his own personality.’
The moment I saw this Mozart, Shaffer’s text fell into place. Every word, every gesture that he had written was consonant with the man. They simply needed a framework of character to unify them. Once I had found that, the playing style of the piece came easily. Psychological realism was out of the question in view of the kaleidoscopic sequence of scenes. Something akin to revue technique was called for, the capacity to start a scene bang in the middle of it, and to wipe it away as soon as it was finished in order to make room for the quite different emotions of the next. Shaffer’s is a theater of gesture. The whole body, the mask of the face, ways of speaking, external details are all of the essence of Peter’s work. The wig, the giggle, the little hop, and so on. (p. 115) (Emphasis mine.)
Particularly vehement are Callow’s arguments against directorial tyranny. John Dexter, for example, would direct every utterance and gesture in such a way that, Callow says, the immense talent of the actors was stifled. Earlier in his career Callow was a member of the Joint Stock Company which used an extraordinary process of actor research and consultation directly with the playwright as a means of creating new works. It’s a leftist approach which empowers the “workers,” but so what? It worked beautifully. Under non-process oriented direction, he says, the actor often feels like a marionette jerked about by incomprehensible directorial whim, and is for this reason unable to inhabit the character. Edward Bond was another such tyrant. He was a dramatist who decided that he would direct all the premiers of his plays himself, despite having “no understanding of the processes of acting.” (p. 131) Yet Simon Callow has had a prolific stage career. How was he able to do it?
Part 2 depicts the stage actor’s life. First we learn about the wretchedness of unemployment and the anxiety of auditions.
When this is over, the director (if, please God, he’s not on stage with you but in the stalls) will shout out: ‘Very interesting, thank you.’ Dread word, ‘interesting.’ . . . He’ll then clamber up onto the stage, put his arm around your shoulder and say, ‘Mmm. I’d like to try that again, if you don’t mind, like to have another little go at it.’ ‘Yes, yes,” you interject, passionately, ‘it was terrible.’ ‘No, it wasn’t terrible at all—I’d just like to see a little more vulnerability. [Or majesty, or fun, but it’s usually vulnerability. Hilarious that in this firing-squad situation, that’s the one thing you cannot produce at any cost.] OK?’ And off you go again, and it’s always better, and it’s always worse. So, baffled, you shake hands amid unreal checkings of your agent’s phone number, and your immediate whereabouts. As you leave the auditorium, action-replaying the whole episode, examining the director’s every inflection, you pass an actor on his way in and you know immediately that he’s going to get the job. (p. 147)
These are the Part 2 chapter headings: Unemployment, Getting the Job 1, The Agent, Getting the Job 2, Preparation, First Read Through, Rehearsal 1, Character 1, Rehearsal 2, Character 2, Rehearsal 3, Rehearsal 4, Into the Theater, The Dress Rehearsal, The First Preview, First Night, The Reviews, The Run 1, A Good Performance, A Bad Performance, The Run 2, The Audience, Twenty-four Hours in the Life, The End of the Run, Unemployment Again, Manifesto, Gloomy Postscript. There are also priceless stories from the stage. One is about Callow’s astonishing meeting with Terry Hands of RSC late in the book. Another:
I recall a radio program where Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson were interviewed. ‘Tell me, Sir John and Sir Ralph, do you ever give each other notes?’ There was an appalled silence, broken by Richardson. ‘Good - God - no!’ he cried, while Sir John cooed negatives in the background. ‘I can’t abide notes,’ declared Sir Ralph, ‘especially from a director. My idea of a director is a chap who puts me in the middle of the stage, and shines a bright light on me.’ (p. 175)
Part 3 was written 30 years after publication of the first two. The author brings us up to date on his mid-career doings, which now include directing, writing the Charles Laughton biography, playing Molina in The Kiss of the Spider Woman—featuring Mark Rylance, a coup de théâtre—and an update on the decay of the British theater.
When I was young the British actors in the films I saw were always the best actors. Alas, there was no British playgoing for me, but I saw many films and the British handily outshone my American compatriots. That doesn’t happen anymore. Under Thatcher Britain stopped subsidizing its theaters and acting schools. This led to the dissolution of the repertory companies. So there was no longer any place where young actors could go to learn as many roles as possible in a relatively short time, say, two years. This magnificent form of on-the-job training was gone. Henceforth stage productions were on an ad hoc basis and such vital communities of young actors kaput.
I’m a writer, not an actor, but I have always marveled at those with this strange skill. A great performance often seems incomprehensible to me in terms of how it’s done. Well, as it turns out, many actors themselves don’t know. There’s a story here about Sir Laurence trying to figure it out. He couldn’t and that incited his pique. But it turns out explaining this nebulous process is one of the things Simon Callow was put on the earth to do. I think particular stretches of phrasing in Part 3 reminiscent of V.S. Naipaul. It is the breadth and specificity of Callow’s commentary that, I think, makes his text useful to anyone who writes or reads passionately.
I’ve ordered his Shooting the Actor which among other things is about a failed film project in Eastern Europe, and his roles in films like A Room with a View and Four Weddings and a Funeral....more
I saw this on Broadway so I'm going to count it as a read. Fantastic production with Estelle Parsons as the crazy mother.I saw this on Broadway so I'm going to count it as a read. Fantastic production with Estelle Parsons as the crazy mother....more
Read The Misanthrope and was surprised by how it held me. Generally, I find plays very dead on the page. Not this one. Moliere's keen wit and sharp chRead The Misanthrope and was surprised by how it held me. Generally, I find plays very dead on the page. Not this one. Moliere's keen wit and sharp characterizations comes through beautifully. He has this very light touch. And here's the funny thing--the play's in verse! Rhyming couplets for the most part. Here's part of what translator Wilbur says about it: "In this play, society itself is indicted, and though Alceste's criticisms are indiscriminate, they are not unjustified...." Let me add that Alceste thinks of himself as the only moral visionary about. Everyone else is ruined by the various social fraudulences of the day (1666). There are others who see through this faux civility, too, of course, but Alceste is the one whose pride spurs him on to ever greater truth telling. If the play weren't so funny, and Wilbur's verse so sharp, Alceste would be a very great bore indeed. Tartuffe I liked too. It's about this con man who, playing the role of the pious Christian, wheedles his way into the heart of a prosperous Paris householder. That man, Orgon, is so taken in by the fraud Tartuffe that he allows it to disrupt his very large household. But then he's caught trying to seduce the lady of the house. That moment of exposure provides enormous pleasure. Though the meter tends to slow the reader down a bit, both plays read very fast, about an hour each....more
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