Four Plays for Coarse Actors [antikvár]

What are Coarse Actors? And why writc plays for thcm? It all bcgan with my book The Art of Coarse Acting, a sort of text-book of stagc disaster and moronic performance. It seemed to strike a chord with many stage peoplc, both amatcur and professional. Somé wroto with experiences of their own, such as a Birmingham man who deseribed a Macbeth ín which the blades of Macbcth's property daggers feli off. Lady Macbeth, thinking she was being very resourccful, then pronounccd: Infirm of purpose! Give me the handlés! and snatched thcm from a startled Macbeth. Anothcr actor elaimed a collcague, in the typical way of a Coarse Actor, always made himself up in grotesque fashion and had all his disguises prepared in boxcs from which be could produce any physical infirmity. Bcfore a show he'd say, "Pass me my wart box, old chap" and plaster his face with warts, and then go to a tin labellcd BOILS and add somé of those. finishing off from a box with SCABS written on the lid. The final touch was a qutek dusting with dandruff from a pepperpot. The writer said it was driving him mad using the samc dressing-room. Somé performers found an irresistible dcsire to let their hair down and have a coarse acting orgy, which manifested itself in outbreaks ofdramatic mayhem organized as Coarse Acting festivals. The first was at the Questors* Theatre. Ealing (at the suggestion of its founder, Alfréd Emmct) and proved so popular that several morc have been held. Others have been organized by varlous amatcur groups and at professional theatres such as Salisbury Playhouse. Thcsc festivals gave rise to the idea of-and the demand for- plays espccially written for Coarse Acting. In The Art of Coarse Acting I give two definitions of a Coarse Actor: one who can remember the pauscs but not the lines; or one who can remember the lines but not the order in which they come. But these deseribe only one facet of the Coarse Actor-his carelessness and incompetence. Therc is more to being a Coarse Actor than just being a bad actor. One of the things which distinguishes him is his desire to shine. Hence the man with a box full of warts. It b impossiblc for the audience to ignore even the smallest bit-part, if the man playing it has covered himself in warts and boils. I was reminded of this recently on watching an amateur group perform The Beggar's Opera. The show was ruined by a character with a parrot sewn on one shoulder who kept mowing and gibbering all over the stage at every conceivable opportunity. The director told me he knew he was going to have trouble when the man arrived at rehearsal and said, "Do you want me to wear my parrot sewn ontheleftor the right shoulder ?" As this actor showed another strong characteristic of the Coarse Actor- to be totally undircctable-the director had to put up with it. In fact he