THE PLAY’S THE THING


We discover as we push the boundaries the infinite ways in which we can tell the story. This story is the constant structure to our imaginative storytelling. The way we tell it isn’t as important as what’s being told. Despite all the important work we do, challenging ourselves, taking risks and dedicating time and energy physically, mentally, and emotionally to our craft and our performance, it’s actually not about us, it can’t be, it’s about the story, Hamlet. The play’s the thing. Our Hamlet will be different every night but we shouldn’t set about trying to make it so at the expense of the story. Our inventiveness, our liveness and our imaginations, as beautiful and as incredible as they are in themselves, are only truly powerful when they are completely allied to the play, to the story.

It’s not about us being interesting. The play already is interesting. We make it more so by adding ourselves to it. Surely the actor’s most interesting choice is ‘in and of’ the text?

Should there be any separation between the actor’s choice of action and the story?
How can there be? If an actor makes a choice of action separate from the text, then it isn’t about the story of Hamlet. It either becomes a new story or an improvisation, a scat, a riff, something other and I think ultimately inferior to the work Shakespeare has given us. We don’t need to go looking elsewhere.

The words are the key to the door and it’s what is behind the door that we as actors and audience want to see. In life and performance it’s not the words that we hear that make us crack a smile or shed a tear, it’s the truth we hear behind them. Simply, the truth is in the subtext.