Post Festival 2005

Well, I managed to survive another RN Theatre Festival. As I posted in an earlier Ramble, I was playing Sir Robert Chiltern in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. I have to say that it was easily the hardest role I’ve played in several years. The reason being that although Ideal is a comedy, Sir Robert is a straight role and his emotions are up and down like a demented yoyo.

But the production went well. The adjudicator was an old friend of mine, so when he gave me my critique, he was uncomfortably accurate (many thought that he was a little harsh – but he was telling the truth – he knew that I could have made the character more three dimensional. He should know, he’s directed me five times!).

The awards night was a scream. Ideal picked up a few awards, including Best Actor (Lord Goring) and Best Voice (Lord Caversham).

I managed to pick up a Highly Commended for my manuscript for Mark of a Gentleman. I couldn’t question the winner of that category – he wrote something that I couldn’t – a full-length play in mime!

The festival has left me feeling a little distant at the moment. I’ve noticed that being a playwright has significantly altered my views of acting. I find myself wanting to correct other actors and ask too many questions of the director. I guess that’s why I had such a problem bringing reality to my character. I needed to understand the psychology of my character and I couldn’t get there, as I couldn’t understand what was going on around me. That isn’t a criticism of the production – this adaptation had a huge cast; performed by an amateur company. Time was of the essence, and the only way that we could all have gained every bit of information we wanted, was to delay the performance by about three months.

So I’ve made the decision to pull back a bit from acting and concentrate on writing and directing. I’ve got a couple of ideas about both… I’ll keep you updated.