“Rehearsing Is Like That. It Works One Week, The Next It Doesn’t.”

Mia and I presented our scene from On Purge (Bébé)! with text today. We’d just got to a point where we felt we knew our lines well enough, so we thought we’d give it a try. I took the direction Philippe had given to Ben and Sophia and shouted a lot. Philippe got Mia to shout more. But the shouting didn’t work for us. It made it seem angry - not funny. 

“Not a good couple...They look like they will get a divorce.” 

He got us to do the scene again as “as if they are going to fuck” which brought more lightness and play to the scene. And then he got us to switch to and from shouting every time he hit his drum. But I don’t think shouting is right for me. Because when I really shout it’s loud and strong. But when Mia and I first improvised the scene it wasn’t mega-shouting all the time. Only little bursts of it. Working with Philippe today I started to feel like an actor working in rehearsal. I am trying to find the way to play that I feel free in. And he as a director is helping me to try and find this too. So when something didn’t work I wasn’t killed for being bad. Instead we would negotiate and find another way. I expressed my surprise that we couldn’t find the fun we had the last time we played. 

“Rehearsing is like that. It works one week, the next it doesn’t.” 

Philippe then decided that Mia needed to look more grotesque. I can’t remember the word he used, but he sent her away whilst he worked with others a bit, and she came back looking like a barbarian. All dirty, newspaper in her hair, raggy clothes. A bit Bouffonesque. 

He led her to speak in a broad rural french accent, which gave her a funny voice and rhythm. Quite bossy, pushy, but relaxed in a don’t-care-French way. And when we did the scene with her like this, suddenly it started to come alive. Because her image and voice and rhythm was so great. And when you put that next to mine, the combination is funny. You wonder how these two got together, and what their relationship is like.

I spoke to Philippe at the end of class as I wanted to know what I can do as an actor, because in both my scenes so far I feel like am playing the normal, the fixed point, and my partners are playing crazy around me. And the combination is funny, but I’m not by myself. He agreed and said I am the contra but the characters in themselves aren’t necessarily funny. But he said it would be better if I’m also crazy. “You must go in this direction.” I said yes but I can’t go in Ben’s direction - I have to find my own way. And he said yes but having a body part that moves strangely is not just funny when Ben does it. It’s funny for anyone. So I’m going to keep looking for this way to be crazy.

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For the period in class whilst Mia got changed Thomas and Akron tried the scene with Bouzin and the swapping of pants. It wasn’t great. Akron could be so great as Bouzin, but he’s not willing to take any real risks, so nothing comes quickly.

Philippe then got several couples to stand on stage and mingle as if they were having half-time drinks at the Opera.

 He got Akron to wander about the groups and every now and then try to interrupt a conversation and try to sell his songs. He was good as bizarre, and the interruption was often pleasing, but then he didn’t really do anything. Katy ended up stealing the show with her impersonation of a stupid American girl which was brilliant. A game developed in which everybody avoided her, and left her with Bouzin.

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Afterwards we also set up a kind of Cabaret and both Steph and Vicky sang a sensual song, and were fed lines from a play (can’t remember which one) in which the text was about men and marriage. They both found good presence and rhythm here. Sometimes it’s good to get back to something simple and strong and then build off that.


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By the way...the website for Larvel Masks...is here.