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"WAITING FOR GODOT" AT COMÉDIE DE CAEN #8
“We are now a few days away from opening night. Our acting has become more intense, and so has our tiredness! It is an insidious exhaustion that knocks us off our axis and corrupts our emotions”. For Jean Lambert-wild, Lorenzo Malaguerra and Marcel Bozonnet, now in the home stretch, it is time to do walk-throughs. They share with us their last doubts and their search for the right theatrical alchemy.
On stage, exhaustion is not an ally: it makes our sensitivity and commitment reckless. It corrupts and reduces our acting perspectives. It uniquely colours our voice and our gestures, it tenses up the secret muscle that allows generosity. With touches of grey, it weakens the elegance of laughter. Of course, in rehearsals, it is interesting to experience exhaustion: sometimes it allows us to find new sensations and, on occasion, some things that are unexpectedly helpful. But if this experience turns into a habit, then both body and mind are pushed into corners where they barricade and defend themselves against any new costly experimentation of the imagination.
To exhaust exhaustion, we must find pleasure in performing
Exhaustion means we can experience an emotion’s extremes, but it is reckless to count on this stamina to hold us through a whole performance. Those extremes do not allow a whole spectrum of nuance, and in particular, they prevent the luminosity that comes from being in tune. A fever provokes hallucinations, but no means to represent them. Exhaustion, this old companion, lurks around the stage. Throats tense up, muscles contract, nerves let go. This is understandable: rehearsing the same scene for hours can be fastidious. The body’s weariness always ends up reaching the mind. This is why, backstage, good mood, camaraderie, mutual assistance and humour are so necessary. To exhaust exhaustion, we must find pleasure in performing.
Every day, a run through
From Monday, at 8pm every day, we will do a run through (translator’s note: called a filagein French). In our line of work, this idiom is a beautiful description of what it is we are trying to achieve. We perform the play in its entirety, without stopping, which means we follow the thread (fil) that will allow us to not lose ourselves in the maze of the live performance, or, because it is a sensitive image that the French phrase evokes: we thread together all the emotions we have accumulated.
The alchemy of the stage hangs by a thread
For each run through, we make a precise note of the time, as well as of each sequence and every mistake we make. At the moment, our running time is 1 hour 8 minutes for the first act and 59 minutes for the second act. It is well balanced, but within these running times, the pace is still uncertain. Experiencing the sequences in continuity transform the pace. A scene doesn’t have the same energy when it takes place after we’ve been on stage for an hour. It is an evidence… but our approach cannot be scientific, because the parameters that need to be adjusted to find the right pace are so specific that none of the directors can decide in advance what they are. We constantly have to adjust. We have to understand which parts require extra soul and which ones require mechanically precise acting. We have to undertake the difficult labour of scratching the few words that we still have to extract mysteries that will reconcile us with what we are. We have to be suspicious of the habits that exhaust our acting. The little amenities that lead us to believe that some stability would provide a guarantee. Stage alchemy depends on a few things. Everything here is unstable. We have to be on the lookout for mysterious tectonics. On stage, we must wander, never using the ones that follow to determine what our steps will be. Walking while reversing the hierarchy of walking. Wandering, and thinking of this act as a protection against the unique real thinking of the world.
POZZO: (…) but behind this veil of gentleness and peace, night is changing (vibrantly) and will burst upon us (snaps his fingers) pop! Like that! (his inspiration leaves him) just when we least expect it, (Silence. Gloomily.) That’s how it is on this bitch of an earth.
To perform “Waiting for Godot”, one must be vivacious, supported, present to the acting and in each instant. It is a commitment that combines mechanical precision with an engagement of the soul. We cannot sell our emotions at a reduced rate, but we cannot overrate them either. Beckett’s writing is too humble to be subjected to a demonstration of untimely emotions. Resonances happen when they are done at a good pace. For this to happen, we need a fully healthy mind and not too many physical wounds. Let’s joyously hold this. Soon, we will be saved. Soon, there will be an audience.
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