Friday, January 29, 2010
Top German actors' vodka binge takes drunken satire too far
guardian.co.uk: "A performance at Frankfurt's prestigious Schauspielhaus theatre ended in chaos after four of Germany's top actors decided 'as an experiment' to substitute vodka for water during a performance of a play described in the programme notes as a 'crazy depiction of one of the most famous alcoholic benders in world literature'."
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7 comments:
I'm surprised that these actors got off with a warning. It was completely unprofessional, and should highlight their probable inability to act, for them to rely on alcohol in order to act drunkenly on stage. I also feel badly for the audience, if they wanted to see two people get drunk, I'm sure they could've hit up a bar instead. Once the actors began to lose their grip on the script, I hope the show was ended promptly.
I realize we as design and production have little faith in actors. We make things as safe as possible so they may not fall, hurt themselves or others. But where was the props people when this happened? Even if they were to slip vodka off without the props people knowing you would think that a show- based on the way the synopisis sounds that demands large amounts of "alcohol" that a props person would have caught on, intervened and fixed the problem. I hope this would never happen here- cause what an embaressment to the theater establishment, the crew, director, designers. Theater is a collaborative effort and when one team decides to steer that effort in one direction without telling the others does it become a problem. a big problem. It's childish.
WHAT!? Excuse me? Ok Im sorry that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. I can understand wanting to get in the head of your character, but in doing that you should want to do the best job possible. So in that respect, even if, IF I would condone this 'experiement' for a minute, why wouldnt they just add a little vodka to their water and make a mixture? Then they could just be a little buzzed by the end of the show. But what about their lines and blocking? Im still just flabbergasted, what were they thinking? And the fact that they were just given a slap on the wrist is ridiculous, yes it was juvenile behaviour but they are adults and should be held accountable.
This story is quite amusing. During the being of the article, one gets the sense of what the actors must have been thinking. I know plenty of actors who like pulling pranks and seeing what they can get away with, however, this was not very well thought out. I'm sure many people backstage knew they were going to do this, and that it was some kind of practical joke. However, there is obviously a point where it goes overboard. Yes, it was foolish and immature, but I am sure there are many instances where actors try jokes like this and get away with it.
I agree with Sonia that this is incredibly stupid, but this wasn't all the actors' fault. The director said it was an experiment! He was in on it (maybe even suggested it) the whole time! Bryce is right that we do tend to give actors a hard time, but in this case, it wasn't all their fault. And the director giving them shit about it was a cop-out. There is no way that everyone involved didn't know this what was going on (aside from the audience) and no one stopped them. If real theaters are anything like the SOD, there is NO way they could keep that big of a secret so well. The actors are getting the blame for this because they were the visible ones, but they weren't the only people making this decision. I mean, it was clearly stupid to go along with it--and they should have refused--but we can't give them all of the blame.
Am I just too laid back to find this appalling? I don't consider myself to be an extremely laid back person, but I find this incident hilarious. And it's pretty obvious that the director was involved. That would explain the slap on the wrist for the actors. "Ok we'll try this real alcohol thing ONCE, see what happens." Obviously after that it was like, "ok we've had our fun, not going to do that again". People need to lighten up.
I'm probably going to be a bit redundant, but I don't think anything about this article should be taken lightly when you are charging money from an audience expecting to see a professional performance. It's the same exact thing as showing up drunk to your job. I think this would be a funny experiment to try in during a gallop-through or a pickup rehearsal if the directors allowed it, or better yet on the actors' own time, but in the middle of a performance is really one of the stupidest things they could have ever tried. Frankly, it's more embarrassing for them than anyone else, and I hope they completely regret it. That's an hour that the audience paid for that they won't get back.
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