Simple Story

I recently read David Mamet's "Theatre" which states early on, "Many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be considered heretical." And he's right... they are completely heretical... if theatre were a religion (as he notes in the next line).

Now, I read through is book and while I took issue with some of his points about acting (especially if you were to try, as he was not, to apply them to commercial or "theatrical" acting on television or film). It's a great read for anyone who has studied theatre. If you haven't, it'd probably be akin to reading the journal of secret society that you weren't apart of. So much of the real richness that is derived from my read of the book is the understanding of what he is responding to, so often (though directly stated, there is nothing like having experienced the things he criticizes).

Nevertheless, it's worth a read. And I thought that before I was given a live demonstration.

This last week I agreed to goto a religious convention. The 'hook' was going to be a production on stage! Now, this is no hook for me -- I've seen plenty of productions and I had no desire to see this one but out of politeness, I agreed.

And what an example... The production was horrid. Completely wretched, really. The voices were all prerecorded (for various reasons which nevertheless was no excuse to the theatrical purity pulsing through my veins) and worse, they had this "translated from Japanese animation into English" vibe. The voice acting was just horrible, the lines were all rushed (great for radio/voice-overs) and the actors all overacted because, logically, they have to convey all the emotion in their voices alone so they "really went for it!" Instead of just saying the words... they "filled" them with emotion.

"We must go do this!" spoken as if a 7-year-old was performing some homemade play. The voices were often out of synch with the actors. The dialogue was completely ridiculous, written with such a slant toward the religious point they were making that I felt like every scene we were getting slapped with a big "do you see the point" trout!

Oh and the players? Well, the lack of any acting ability was made up for with wild gesticulation! "The town over there..." "The threat over there..." "The wine over here..." "The world..." (all over). Imagine any 7-year-old performing a play and their concept of the words is simply to indicate what they are speaking about.

The scenery was flimsy, the characters cliché, the morality in your face, the music cheesy (just like that animation fair), the costumes convincing enough but the props ridiculous (a sack of 'heavy' belongings that seems as light as an balloon).

And the audience was ... well... eating it up.

No, really, this audience of over 10,000 people sat quietly, applauded and remained engaged. Now, I thought, of course, this is simply a mark of politeness -- a sign that they respect the lessons being delivered to them and wouldn't dare be out of line. Now, some people came and went to the bathroom, but very few. And then it ended. No curtain call or anything but something amazing happened.

People left. People began to talk in their seats. A lecture began in front of the same audience and they were transformed. A couple of girls below me began talking persistently, only pausing to applaud when the rest of the audience did. Hundreds of people actually just left, perhaps it was to use the restroom but many seats remained open for the hour afterward.

How could this be? They... they enjoyed it?

And then I described this to a cheerier and more accepting person than I, who had experienced these lectures and the plays, and she summed it up succinctly, "they talk for the whole weekend but the drama you can just chill out."

Mr. Mamet would be ... well, would be muttering something about "duh, you idiot."

Everything a learned theatrical master would "know" about theatre just tossed out. Was this even theatre? I'm not sure but it was certainly performance. And it certainly engaged the audience as a staged production. Even the children seemed a bit more relaxed.

The audience could turn off their logical brain and simply enjoy the plot... and there was a plot. Beyond the wretched dialogue, there was a plot. Like most biblical stories, they are good stories. You want to know what happens next. Do they do this or do they do that? That fundamental push, that.. "Oh, that fellow just showed up with new information!" moment.

And here, 10,000 people enjoyed a performance any self-respecting theatre major would term as crap (to be fair, I've never been a self-respecting or even disrespecting theatre major). So what happened here? It wasn't sheer politeness that guided this audience to remain still -- they would have remained seated and quiet for the final lecture. If it wasn't that we're left holding the bag of "duh" from Mr. Mamet, they were entertained.

For all the theory, all the character work, for all the years of practice and brilliant lectures and untold experimentation with lighting and music and....

No, it was a real-life demonstration of what he said mattered. The audience could hear what was being said and there was a plot. Even if the actors had not been on stage I think only the children would have been disengaged because the story still would have been there.

It was a lesson that came at a perfect time.

I may disagree with some of the points Mr. Mamet makes but as far as his most fundamental points -- I found I'm left holding the proverbial bag. All the pondering and grand theories of great-makers of theatre wrapped guiltily around my wrist.

It makes me reevaluate my prime beliefs of theatre, of performance.

I've been around theatre long enough to "get" most of what he says and see when he's spot-on. However, it's the points that I disagree with that deserve further study because right now, I have all these thoughts and no where to go with them.

Other than... as an actor, doing it, is a very powerful tool. The rather bad part of all of this is I saw how I far more easily fit his definition of a great Director than a great Actor.

But, I knew that going in.

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