Singulars: Kane / Eno

How does a director rehearse a one-actor show? What about two really different ones at once? Depends on who the actor is -- or are.

I'm currently working on 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane, and Will Eno's Thom Pain (based on nothing), to be performed in repertory in a few weeks. Significantly, the two actors hard at work on each of these rather dense texts are undergraduates, undertaking their senior projects.

They are unusual undergraduates: astute, committed and closely connected in a small liberal-arts community.

But why do I say "significantly"? Two reasons, especially: first, as young actors, they are each naively free of an accumulated bag of tricks, and second, they are open to the question of "how do we actually do this?"

It turns out that working together on completely different material is not only possible, but helpful and dynamic. We started out last fall doing some Grotowski-inspired exercises, beginning to find the impulses for self-revelation and the dynamic presence needed to hold the stage alone.

Table work last month involved analysis, of course, but also sharing principles of vocal release, sensitivity to language and proportion, and the experience of generating internal tasks alone. Both shows demand the actor's ability to make quicksilver changes, and to fire the mind to speak the text as spontaneous thought, without external promting. Some solo shows are character sketches, funny or sentimental as each may be, and accomodating to an audience's thoughtless desire for charm. These two shows are not in that vein. Rather, they are original dramatic creations that break the mold.

Now we are on our feet: with each new discovery in interpreting the material, it seems, come others, both personal and methodological. In sharing these experiences, the two actors are growing quickly. I expect their performances to be all the more fresh as a result.

The stark differences in the two plays is also reaping interpretive benefits, most of which are unspoken, but still manifest. Most importantly, though, is the unavoidable conclusion that a one-actor performance of any kind is an essentially existential exercise. With no one else on stage to relate with, it's pretty hard to hide behind a veil of fiction. These shows are, for each of these young actors, a test of pure theatre-making.

4.48 Psychosis was written by Sarah Kane shortly before her death by suicide some ten years ago. It is a dense text without stage directions, without even a designated "character." It employs an array of rhythms and modes: poetic, diagnostic, conversational and spiritual. Early on it was trivialized by the critic Michael Billington as a "suicide note". As we are discovering, it is a highly playable and richly structured text that uncannilly evokes both the searing pain of mental distress and a desperate wish for the eternal.

Thom Pain (based on nothing), by Will Eno, may be similarly underappreciated in some quarters by those who mistake its patina of cynicism for its passionate heart. Eno's play is dizzyingly busy with images and theatrical subterfuge, but it also probes deeply the way that childhood brands us with its sometimes senseless experiences. It demands a tour-de-force performance to reach its eerie, moving climax. Plus it's really funny.

We're using one theatre for both shows, but not in the same way. "4.48" is being played in an intimate 100-seat configuration on stage, in an enclosed abstract environment. (I'm not saying made of what!) The production will employ a live-mix sound design, a kind of electronic musical complement, being created by another student. "Thom Pain" uses the proscenium stage in a more traditional sense, except that just upstage of the apron on which most of the show is played is the theatre-within-a-theatre built for "4.48". In this way the two shows can play in rep with any changeovers and will give our audiences quite distinct experiences, while providing Thom Pain with an "empty theatre" that's not quite empty, which suits the play well (if you know what it's about).


If this blog entry sounds like I am promoting these projects, I am.
Performance info is here.