My play has this long last scene, 2 people, husband and wife, talking for 20 pages.
The first 10 of these pages are practically "all subtext" - there's a plain surface meaning, and a charged subterranean exchange.
Plays aren't like novels. The audience can't be given a 3 sentence description of the character's facial expressions and tone of voice and secret motives. The actors have to supply all that stuff.
Anyway, tonight we did these 10 pages of "all subtext", and the director knew where to dig. He awes me. And the actors followed him into the dark underground. And their performances turned moving and raw. Which is what the scene needs to be.
Characters who speak indirectly
are harder play correctly.
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