Applause not needed, says visiting actor

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 5

Applause not needed, says visiting actor

Applause is an unnecessary way to show appreciation for a performance, according to a visiting Irish actor, Mr Richard Morris.

Mr Morris said he asked audiences not to clap. He could gauge their reaction to a play by their laughter and tears.

“I don’t worry about applause but have a discussion with the audience after the recital,” he said in Christchurch yesterday. On Thursday, Mr Morris will perform Shakespeare’s “King Lear” at the University of Canterbury. He performs the two-hour cut version of “Lear” using 14 different voices.

He had performed the one-man “King Lear” at least 50 times throughout Europe extremely successfully, he said. “No other actor even attempts it.” “King Lear” is one of 10 one-man plays Mr Morris acts.

Mr Morris criticised actors who lost their integrity to gain fame and money. “Fame and money are not

the most important things in life,” he said.

People often became dependent on others they might normally despise for fame and money.

“But when one loses one’s integrity and sucks up to people one despises, then they are no longer a free agent,” said Mr Morris. Mr Morris’s acting career began at the age of six when he was “Little Boy Blue” in a school nursery rhyme concert. He became totally engrossed and carried away by the part. That experience and a play about an African leper colony, at the age of 11, were the beginning of his love for the theatre, in spite of parental disapproval. He said “a must” for wopld-be young actors was to attend an acting academy for two to three years. Among other things they would learn that the hide of an elephant was needed to survive in theatre. Mr Morris attended two acting academies in London, played in repertory, performed for the troops dur-

ing World War II (sometimes with bombs dropping near the building), owned his own company and his own theatre, before moving to Geneva for health reasons.

Since moving to Geneva 30 years ago he has specialised in one-man acts.

Mr Morris, who has written 10 books and had six published to date, insists his age should be kept secret. “Sometimes I feel 100 and sometimes I feel 18,” he said.

This is his fourth visit to New Zealand. Before leaving Geneva he wrote to several student associations in New Zealand asking if they would like him to perform on campus during his holiday visit. “King Lear” will be performed at the Ngaio Marsh Theatre at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Admission is free but donations for Greenpeace will be collected.

Mr Morris, who hopes some day to emigrate to New Zealand, will also perform “Mad” Shelley on Radio U tomorrow evening.