"You Have To Convince Us"

I got pretty annoyed in class today. I offered a scene to improvise for a street show I want to write to eventually do in Paris. 

Guillaume owns a restaurant called ‘Guillaume’s’ and he dreams of it being a top restaurant with high-class clientèle...but he’s absolutely hopeless. His food is bad. His service his bad. It’s a mess. There’s a reason his restaurant is not popular! And the only customers he does get are cheap tourists that want to save as much money as possible. Guillaume is also completely jealous of his neighbouring competitor ‘Antoine’s’, who is super popular. Whenever anyone enters ‘Guillaume’s’ it’s to ask where ‘Antoine’s’ is. But one time, when a couple enter’s looking for ‘Antoine’s’  Guillaume lies and says that he is Antoine and his restaurant is ‘Antoine’s’. And the drama comes out of Guillaume serving this couple...very badly.

I didn’t have much more than that, and that’s why I wanted to have actor’s improvise. To see if we could find a funny conflict. I made the mistake of saying at the beginning that I wanted to write a ‘Vaudeville’, because after hearing my scenario Philippe then made life difficult by saying it’s not a vaudeville. A vaudeville has rich people, and it’s about sex. It doesn’t have poor people. 

“In Vaudeville they are rich. They take the best champagne.”

If Guillaume is poor it becomes “social theatre.”

I said ‘what about the guy that hopelessly tries to sell the porcelain potties, and he kind of dismissed it. He wasn’t happy my character wasn’t rich rich. I told him about Fawlty Towers, the soul of which I trying to emulate for this show, and how the playing is the same - with opening doors and everything - and he didn’t care. Linda, an actress Philippe worked with a long time ago and comes to class every now and then, chipped in saying the style of playing might be the say but it’s not vaudeville. I don’t care what it is! I just want to write this scene, and play it in the style of vaudeville. Fast and light. But for a long time Philippe wouldn’t let it go. 

I ended up changing the situation a bit, saying Guillaume isn’t poor, he’s just bad. And the customers he gets aren’t cheap tourists, they’re wealthy. This helped a bit but really it didn’t matter too much to me. I just wanted to see what would happen once the couple sat down. But it was evident pretty quickly that it was as hard for actors to improvise as it was for me to write. Because once they sit and Guillaume starts to serve them it becomes bla bla bla.

But some things came out of the improvisations, which we did three of. I learnt that I need to set things up clearly so we know where we are. And Guillaume can’t be on all the time. He has to leave so we can see the couple. “We need time.” With customers, then with Guillaume, then looking at the menu... I also found that it’s better if the customers are high class. A couple that were meant to go to Antoine’s. This makes the conflict better when Guillaume is so hopeless. And an idea came from a line Mike said as his dining character which was “it does look a bit different.” He had offered that the couple were coming for their wedding anniversary. This was good - because now characters have something to hold them. They think they’ve come back to the place they got engaged...but it looks a bit different...and over time they come to realise they are not in Antoine’s. And Guillaume has the game of trying to keep them in the restaurant for as long as possible - whatever it takes. Ben also did some great gags where he was fighting with an imaginary chef offstage behind the dining couple. So he’s flinging himself in and out of view, with things being thrown around. And it’s funny when you see the couple looking at each other bewildered. Maybe they are old?

Anyway, I did discover some good things, but the way Philippe was with me - dismissive and cutting - was really unhelpful. I didn’t want to hear that it was bad. I wanted to hear how it could work. But I suppose that’s how he always teaches. He doesn’t usually show you the way. He just says the way you are going is bad. Therefore, find another way! But oh well. I’ve learnt that trying to explore a developing idea in class with Philippe is not the best tact. It would have been better to just do it with actors in my own time, and when I have a script, or more of a full idea, then we could work.

Philippe said that he didn’t see my idea so clearly, meaning he couldn’t imagine what I’m trying to do. But he did say “you have to convince us.” Which is a good little challenge. Because I feel strong and clear in myself of the purpose of this piece - a street show for tourists of paris - and how it could work. I think the idea is good. But I see it more clearly in my head than anybody else does. So I need to work on it. I just was led to feel like my idea was bad, and that felt shit. To me, nearly any idea can be made to work. 

~

Before I offered my scene, Ben performed a piece from Hamlet. Philippe got him to try different ways of playing it. Avoiding the conventional. He settled with Ben playing a bit upper-class drunk. Still Vaudeville-esque.

“For me, this one could be Hamlet.”

“When you start to take the voice of the Royal Shakespeare Company you are boring.”

“Vaudeville could open many things. How we speak...how we have fun...”

“The Lightness of Vaudeville.”

~

After I offered my scene Ben also offered a situation he’d like to write and improvise. A play about Feydeau when he got syphilis and went mad. The opening scene was with two servants in the hotel where Feydeau lived, coming to get him out as he hasn’t paid his bills in months. But it’s difficult, because he’s mad, thinks he’s Napoleon, and is ready to fight. Yelling and throwing things from his room (off stage). 

“At the beginning of the show you can’t shout. We have to install the characters.”

This show Philippe could see. I got a bit jealous for a while. And started to doubt my ability to come up with good ideas. But no. My idea is fine. And I'm excited about it. I just need to get it clearer, and I'm only at the beginning stages.