Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
K Priti
To hold the audience in rapt attention...
"If the actor performs well and is able to convey the sentiments of the author then you have a hit on your hands. Good lighting, music, costumes, etc, do not make good theatre. If the audience walks out, the blame is at the actor's feet."
"Directors who think they are God... Do not make good directors. A director must have patience. An actor is a machine that can be moulded but only by a director who knows his job. A director should know that he cannot substitute the writer and his text."
"Directors who mess around with a text are fools...
yI once saw a performance of Hamlet where the father's ghost is on the scene and the cock announces the morning. At that point the ghost has to disappear. But in this case, the ghost said `Cock a doodle doo'. I found that ridiculous and walked out."
On censorship...
y"It is absurd and always defies logic. In Sudan, when I was performing A Certain 14th July which I have staged here a few years ago,some of the spectators threw stones and slashed the actors with knives. We had to stop the play and take the wounded to hospital. But the next day, I performed a one-man show with a black curtain as my only prop which I used as a shield against these attacks of censorship, amidst tight security. The next day I was escorted to the airport and now I cannot ever go to Sudan.
He believes...
yLanguage is integral to the play, because the text has to be understood. "It is better to perform a play in a language that a large audience understands rather than a foreign language. The French cultural czars believe that the best way to do a play is to do it in French, but I do not want to perform for 200 spectators and the Embassy staff. A small audience is not my cup of tea."
He prefers...
To be either an actor or a director. "When I am an actor, I have no identity -- I let myself be moulded completely by my director. I also feel that every director must know how to act, only then will he understandthe actor's difficulties and help him overcome them."
On the musical comedy Le Cabaret des artistes...
y"It is in English as well as in French, with passages from L' Orchestre of Jean Annouilh and Le Cabaret des artistes of Dubillard. One of my passions is to go beyond the four walls of the stage. In this play the actors will confront the audience aggressively. A spectator may join the actors for a drink on the stage, since the setting is such. It unfolds on a terrace of a cabaret. If the public know the song, the actors are singing, they will be encouraged to sing along. Mind you it's not easy to break this actor-spectator space barrier but my actors will do it."
When one directs a well-written play...
"The director's job is to merely guide the actors. When one encounters a good text then the performance will be extraordinary. I do not like Jean Annouilh's plays but they are extremely well-written and the right base for a performance."
Le Cabaret des artistes will be performed atthe Alliance Francaise auditorium on December 14, 15 and 17 and at the Cultural Centre of Russia on December 16. Time: 6.30 pm.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------