All Things Absurd

Chickenshed have re-launched their Emerging Writers week. I wrote something for this the same time last year. This time I shall go more down the path of theatre of the absurd. As I have previously said I find all things to do with the absurd much more glorious and awe inspiring than anything “normal” who wants naturalism after all? We are forced to live in real life who in their right mind would also want to pay to watch it when the highest possible compliment you can give it is “it was wonderfully mundane”.  The absurd can knock back home perfectly good “real world” kind of messages without the threat of becoming so close to life that if the stage went on for a further ten miles you could imagine seeing yourself sat at home.

What I suggest is make things real to a point – then throw in the one element that does not match. This element is what makes a play stylish. It gives it that slight otherworldly hint while anchoring it on the shores of planet Earth 2012. Some plays however do this the opposite way around – they will be set in a world so absurd that anything resembling real life will take it further away from it. This is also stylish and works wonderfully.

The children’s book ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ is a perfect example of messages hidden through the absurd. It offers a world completely eccentric long before anything otherworldly turns up. Alice is by her nature an absurd character. She talks like a Greek philosopher and yet has a sort of pseudo childlike innocence. She reacts to each situation with no fear of her impending death but with an insult or a giggle. If a talking Catarpillar calls her stupid she will not reply “ahhh a talking Caterpillar with a Hookah pipe” she would call it “rude”. This language, the “rude” serves as both the real world and the absurd joke. It’s a very typical reply from a very polite and boring period in British history deployed at the most outrageous of times. However, it would be foolish to accuse Mr. Carroll of writing nothing but nonsense. In fact much of his writing is the exact opposite of this it contains messages for sure. Much of them aimed it would seem in my opinion at the royal family and it’s way of going about things. First of all we start with the Duchess. Living alone in a stately house that is dilapidated and being used for the bare minimum we see her sat there – the upturned nose, the wide face and the squinted eyes perfectly represent the then unfashionable but quite correct view of all things aristocratic in the country. Not only is the Duchess drawn like some kind of inbred goliath but she also has a baby that turns into a pig… I think this shows us Mr. Carroll’s view on the Royal bloodline. Then we come to the cards. They play the biggest role in what I consider to be Mr. Carroll’s blow to the Royals. The Queen of Heart is a despotic tyrant, crying out “off with her / his head” at a whim. This is perfectly representative of the kind of people who once sat on the throne. Her likeness is so similar to Queen Victoria. That penguin like appearance with that oh so familiar outfit. Apparently Queen loved the book. Perhaps she considered it a tribute. Perhaps it was meant to be one. I don’t want to get bogged down in the hidden messages of the characters in Wonderland. My point is simply that the absurd can often offer messages that are presented with so much style that they are disguised. You don’t just take in the views of the author you are forced to understand it. You can take it at face value if you like or you can delve into the psyche of a man with a clear sense of humour and understanding of the foppish silliness of his time. I am in the early stages of planning something but so far I think it will have the themes of desensitization and possibly grief.

As an Ugly Sister in
Cinderella's understudy run

Prospero in
Shakespeare's Island

This same rule of mixing styles that I mentioned before can be brought to the foreground in performance. When I played the part of Prospero in “Shakespeare’s Island” back in March of this year I didn’t for one second presume I could get my teeth into the character. Actor’s today have the wonderful, blissful comfort of knowing every way that a character can be played has already been done. So don’t try. What you instead need to do to make it look like you have created an entirely new version of character is mix things up a little. First of all start with your character. Prospero – he can be played, sympathetic, insane, despotic and even heroic. So how do you play him a new way… it would be a mistake to try and make him a coward – because It won’t mix with his dialogue. So instead of making the character himself original in a contrasting way – make the performance itself contrasting. Now you can play him in any of the aforementioned styles. So if you choose to play him heroic play him in the style of say – Michael York. Mr. York to my knowledge has never played Prospero and so taking elements of his performance as say Tybolt and saying the lines with the same speech pattern it will look to people as it’s something completely original. Many of you will disagree with this and say that it’s lazy… and yes it is, but in my opinion acting is the profession of a lazy person to begin with. I could never do anything real. So when playing an ugly sister – play it as Al Paccino. It will be painfully obvious what you are doing but people will come out the theatre with “oh wan’t it wonderful how that actor played that woman like Al Paccino”. I like to call that - fashionable plagiarism. I did play an Ugly Sister once as an understudy and created no sensation as I was very safe... but my Paccino is very bad so I couldn't achieve what was needed.

So in reflection everything has been done but don't let it put you off of doing it better. In the word's of Mr. Crsip: "if the sunny side of the street is full walk in the road".