The Great Acting Blog: “The Occasional Performance Of Elegance And Dignity”

The Great Acting Blog: “The Occasional Performance Of Elegance And Dignity”

I used to think that the quality of our performance was determined by how hard we had worked. That is, the harder we worked, then the stronger our performance would be, it couldn’t be good if it wasn’t stressful*. But now I’m not so sure. Sometimes, great work just glides out of us comfortably. Sometimes, it just doesn’t feel as though there is any resistance to our efforts, any tension – we are relaxed, lethargic even, and yet the results are solid and true, everything about our performance is in alignment, all aspects of it are heading in the same direction. Like a sprinter who is able to reach a high velocity but still maintain elegance and grace, we hit top gear but feel as though we are cruising.

Perhaps it is simply a question of experience. Years of applying the same technique mean that it becomes habitual and fully internalised, it works in our favour, without prompting, without it needing to be applied actively by us – we no longer need to strain. Eventually, all of our creations are shaped by it automatically. Further, the actor’s life is one spent cultivating a love of personal truth, that too becomes a matter of course, whereas for our younger selves, we may have wanted to do truthful work but were unsure about how to deliver it.

Or perhaps it’s all about being at peace with our work, accepting it, trusting it and trusting ourselves, not fretting about the results, just enjoying the journey, and getting out of the way of the work.

I still think great work should be tough to make, but perhaps, for all the stress and grunting, the occasional performance of elegance and dignity is the reward.

* that may not be the audiences view of the performance, but our own

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