Ural

Philippe proposed we do a scene from one of Feydeau’s one-act plays called On Purge Bébé (Take Your Medicine Like A Man) today. It opens with a upper middle-class man looking for the word ‘Ural’ in the dictionary. He’s told his son he knows what it means but that his son should search it himself before he tells him...so now he’s desperately trying to find the meaning...but he doesn’t know how to spell the word! There’s a short scene with a stupid house maid who can’t help him find the word, then his wife enters into his study and they both bicker and fight over how to spell the word (not with a ‘Y’ as in “Yural”, not with a ‘E’ as in “Eural”) and then bicker and fight over who really figured out the answer. 

“They love to fight.”

Philippe asked us if we know couples like this. I do - our American friends - when I got in their car in L.A. they bickered and fought all the way home along the highway about which was the fastest and easiest way home. The GPS assistant was pitching in too!

“Everything has to be a fight.”

I got up to read the text with Steph as the maid and Mia as the wife, and then we ended up doing the actual scene. At first I got killed for not having a theatre voice (too harsh - not royal enough) - I was also reminded that this is the kind of theatre in which actors are applauded when they first appear on stage. You have to speak to satisfy what the audience expects from you. We had a second go and we started to find our feet. We had a game - I belittled her here and there - she had a slow rhythm and I had a fast one... And then Philippe suggested we continue the scene with the wife, so Mia got up, and she immediately got it.

- Hello darling.
        - WHAT? WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME DARLING?
Because I love you, of course.
        - WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?

“This is a guy who is tortured by his wife.”

We improvised for about twenty minutes! Finding different things to fight about. Most of the time the wife was dominant - as Philippe led me to be dominated. Trying to diffuse the situation. “Smile”. “Softer.” We had a great game going on. Anything I said, she would find a way to put me in the shit. And I could help by bringing up apologies or excuses with new topics to attack me about. “Like your mother, darling...”

It was really fun to play, and it felt great to be playing for that long. Lee said to me later it felt as if if we knew the rest of the play we could have just kept going (as after twenty minutes or so we kind of pittered out). There were a few moments where we fell a bit (one when I picked up the phone to call my mother - which didn’t work - too much of an idea I suppose), but we found ways to keep it up and had good complicité together.

Theatre voice. Fun. Rhythms. Opposites.

Perhaps Philippe let me go longer than he might have if I wasn’t the first to try - I don’t feel like I was brilliant at all - but I was close and over the past few days I’ve been getting closer to it. When I commit fully it works. I have to do this from the start, not after warming into it. Be loved from my first moment on stage. And Philippe said yes we could/should work on the scene. So great!

~

I also debuted my new costume today. I finally got one over the weekend. Dark grey suit, yellow shirt, orange tie, violet waistcoat, and moustache. It makes a big difference to feel good in what you are wearing. To welcome the audience properly.