The Great Acting Blog: “Act With Heart”
In his book My Life In Pieces, Simon Callow tells us that theatre audiences of 1750 were not quite as sedate as their contemporary ancestors. He says they could make:
“the most extreme football hooligans seem like pussycats“.
And:
“at the slightest provocation denizens of the pit would smash benches, tear down lighting sconces, and set fire to the curtains.”
Now, I’m not suggesting we should all torch St Martin’s Theatre after a lacklustre matinee performance of The Mousetrap, however I must confess to a sneaking admiration for those eighteenth century actors who got to run this particular gauntlet. It’s very different to today, where being in the audience can sometimes feel like being a mere appendage to the actor’s career, as their performance becomes little more than a wooing of agents and casting directors. I have even met actors who believe that the performance in front of the paying audience is little more than a continuation of their rehearsals, their “work”. On the same note, I’ve known people tell me that they go to the theatre in order to “observe the actor at work”. Others go simply because they see it as an opportunity to take a nap.
The audience of 1750 may very well have been hooligans but at least something was at stake. The theatre belonged to them, and it was more than the sum total of the individual careers of it’s practitioners. Back then, if an actor was rubbish they were forced to kneel before the audience and beg forgiveness – I wonder how many of today’s actors would have had to suffer that particular indignity.
It’s not the respectability which the theatre achieved over a 100 years ago that I object to, it’s performances lacking heart. That is perhaps the issue of our time, more so than the question of competence.
There is nothing more soul destroying than watching an actor who doesn’t care.
Perhaps we should pelt them with rotten fruit?
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