‘The Art of Coarse Acting’ is a talent

Press, 26 September 1980, Page 13

‘The Art of Coarse Acting’ is a talent

By

KARREN BEANLAND

The worst dreams of every actor will come true in the Repertory Theatre’s latest production, “The Coarse Acting Show,” which opens tomorrow.

Everything goes wrong in the four short plays and two intervals of dancing' that make up the show. Characters fail to appear, background flats wobble and tilt, actors forget their lines, cues are muddled, a table collapses and has to be held up by the actors, and the’ prompt even wanders on from the wings.

But the audience can laugh without embarrassment for the bunch of amateurs making a spectacle of themselves, because it Js all a part of .the show. The evening’s entertainment was written for the most part by Michael Green, who “invented” coarse acting. His book, “The Art of Coarse Acting — Or How to Wreck an Amateur Dramatic Society," is the definitive work on the subject. . The plays include a “who dunnit,”. entitled “Streuth,” and an opera “II Fornicaziorie.” For the literary-minded there is “All’s Well That Ends As You Like It” (from an idea by William peare) and “A Collier’s Tuesday Tea” (with apologies to D. H. Lawrence). The dancing interludes cover everything from classical ballet to the highland, fling and the Charlesto n,■ in astonishingly quick succession.

Barry Grant, who is directing the show, says the idea of coarseness has become very popular since Michael Green wrote “The Art of Coarse Acting” in T9S4. There, are also works on coarse yachting, rugby, golf, sport, travel, bridge, cookery, drinking, entertaining, < gardening, and

language. Now there are even-? festivals; of ,’;coarse . acting. “It strikes a chord because similar things happen to everybody on the stage,” said Mr Grant. “It . became sb popular be-'

cause groups of actors, spontaneously said we have got to do a coarse play to get it out of our system.”

The essential thing about coarse acting is that it is earnest. If the actors do not show that they are earnest underneath their incompetence, it becomes merely farce or comedy. “The coarse actor is of two kinds. He is either totally competent or he is lazy. If he is lazy, that means he might have a spark of talent, but can’t be bothered to learn his lines,” said Mr Grant.

So he might remember his lines, but not their order, or he might remember the pauses but not his lines, or ; he might forget his own lines but remember everybody elses’s. “The coarse actor wants to shine and be seen, and he will do anything to be: seen,” says’,M f Grant < In his ..book, 'Michael;; Greep describes the actor, with only a small walk-1 on part, who would make up with boils or scabs on his face so that the audience would notice him. Then there was the director who said, “I knew I was going, to have trouble when he asked which, shoulder I wanted the parrot -to be sewn on.” -

The. plays are not only bedevilled' by bad actors. There are the coarse lighting, and sound effects, the coarse stage manager who lets the curtain down in

strange places, and the coarse stage hand who nails shut, the French doors. Mr Grant says the plays are not easy for the actors to perform, even though it is all “sheer fun.” For in-. stance there is a scene where the actor comes on

without his trousers. ■ ; “The humour comes from’ the. 'fact" that the. 1 audience is aware that he is absolutely appalled that he is on" stage without his trousers. He has to be full of consternation,” he says. “If he was nonchalant

. about .it, it would become farce or-comedy.” This ; means that the actors are performing two roles. First they are the earnest, but incompetent actors, arid then they are playing the part in the script. The audience must reci ognise the two roles for the plays to be effective.

Mr '• Grant says the coarse plays are best when they are closest to the truth. His favourite is “A Collier’s Tuesday Tea” because it has the fewest straight funny lines. Its “coarseness” comes from the fact that everything

goes wrong, and the actors do riot know what to do about it. After all, Michael Green got-the idea of coarse acting. from -the things that went wrong’ in real, serious plays. Mr Grant recalls a production of “Hamlet” in which the death scene was so funny that the audience called for' an' encore. He says there are . frequently cases where over-eager stage hands have caused “white-out” conditions on stage by using too much mood-setting CO2.

Michael Green tells the story yOf a production of “Othello” in the farnoiis Little Theatre in England, in which one of the actors lost his way in the dark during an end-of-scene blackout and fell off the edge of the stage. The actor had .to crawl up the aisle on his hands- and knees before escaping through the emergency exit.

“It was, by the way, at the same theatre that Osric waved his sword to start the famous duel in “Hamlet” and got it stuck in the proscenium arch,” wrote Michael Green. “As a matter of fact, I was the culprit and I felt a complete fool tugging away at my rapier while everyone else cringed with embarrassment.” Mr Grant says that another problem with the

production of a coarse acting show is that it is an in-joke among actors, one that the general public does not always. know, about. The natural reaction of an audience when it sees an unexpected disaster on stage, is usually embarrassment. To let the audi ence in on the joke first, the evening is presented as the production of “The

Queen Ingrid Hospital Staff Social Club.” ~ The ' chairman of the hospital board and president of the social club comes on stage at the start of the show to praise the range of talents in the hospital staff — and to introduce the cast, “which is . really coarse,” said Mr Grant.

“Another reason I chose a staff social club was that I wanted to have a group that would encompass a large social strata — from brain surgeons to toilet cleaners. This allows for social tensions to be manifested on stage,” he said. “If you have a brain surgeon on stage working next to a - toilet cleaner, he’s bound to get rather snooty about' it.

“The important thing is to become initiated into coarse, acting. Once you are initiated everything becomes coarse,” said Mr Grant. “Only today, when we were driving back to Christchurch, we stopped

to have a milkshake. We asked for.a banana and a chocolate one. When they | came they looked a- funny g colour and we found that | the girl had put banana | arid chocolate into both — | now that is coarse.” |