“You Have To Feel ‘Ay Ay Ay I’m In A Corridor’ And Poff! You Change Immediately.”

More work on Ben’s Feydeau play today. This time exploring the character of George Feydeau. I got up at the beginning to play Feydeau, with the intention of helping Ben as a writer see the shape he had written on the page. Trying to improvise the text he had written - a monologue about writing plays. Philippe killed me in quite a gratifying way:

“I don’t say anything about the actor - but the character is horrible.” 

Then he asked me to do something completely different - not from the world of Vaudeville, but I didn’t change enough. “We can’t present Feydeau like this.”

Thomas had a go and came out quite dramatically, like Hamlet, with a serious stare, slow rhythm and deep voice. Philippe guided Thomas to create a compelling character - changing his rhythms and games often. Laughing! Stop! Low voice! Slow! Now fast! Now walk on your tip toes! Sing! Stop! Laugh! etc. It really shows how important it is for artists to change their rhythm - to offer something different - to surprise us.

“We don’t know who he is. We don’t know where we’re going...I’m curious.”

“If you play too much and you underline how you are strange, everything is down.”

= a clue for how I can play crazy.

“Something strange...something...I am happy to stay one and a half hours with this person.

“Need a secret. Mystery.”

~

He worked with most of the guys in class today. I didn’t try again - didn’t feel on form. Pretty exhausted and had had enough.

Duncan was frustrated again with what he was doing and asked Philippe if she should just focus on being beautiful for now. 


“To be beautiful means not to cheat. You cheat.”

“You have to feel ‘Ay ay ay I’m in a corridor’ and Poff! You change immediately.”

~

After getting through all the boys Philippe said he wouldn’t mind seeing a Madame Feydeau coming to divorce her husband. Vicky came on and presented something really alive and exciting - in a similar unpredictable vein to what Thomas had done.

“Vicky exists...Something that we say ‘Ahh, that is interesting’.”