The Great Acting Blog: “Blue Hair Actors And The Man With The Bloody Arm”

The Great Acting Blog: “Blue Hair Actors And The Man With The Bloody Arm”

I was sitting on a step eating my sandwich, when a man approached me. He was clearly in distress, clutching his arm which had blood pouring from a gash. He asked me if I could spare any money to help him get a taxi to the hospital. Panicked by the sight of the blood and the man’s anguish, I shot to my feet, then reached into my pocket and pulled out a bunch of change, and gave it to him. After accepting the money, he relaxed his arm, smiled, and walked off as though he didn’t have a care in the world. There was nothing wrong with his arm. I had been tricked.

It took a moment to sink in, but once it did, I had a little chuckle to myself. I admired the guy. If you live in a city like London as I do, you are constantly being harassed for loose change, all day, every day. So much so infact, that it grinds you down, and you learn to tune it out, it’s just impossible to deal with everyone who crosses your path.  So, for this man to not only get me to pay attention to him, but to actually get me to willingly give him money, was quite a considerable feat.

What can we learn from this? Well, firstly our work must not, and need not be a trick. It would be over egging the pudding to walk on stage with, say, blue hair.  The actor already has the audiences attention, infact, that’s why they came to the theatre in the first place, so while feel the need to try and draw attention to yourself?  If you did walk on stage with blue hair, it might be provocative at first, but the novelty would wear off pretty quickly, and then what? The crucial lesson from the man with the bloody arm, is for us actors to strive to deliver something extra, not the same old humdrum. And when the audience leaves the auditorium, they might chuckle and shake their heads at the provocative moments of our performances, and they might be strengthened and energised by our work, heck, they may even be moved to write about it.

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