Acting and Characterisation

Abstract

Reading reviews of the 1972 Old Vic production of Jumpers, one is struck by the way in which the personality and skill of the two leading actors were regarded as contributing as much to the success of the performance as the originality and wit of the text. Every reviewer regarded the astonishing performance of Michael Hordern as one of the major reasons for the success of the performance. But, interestingly, some critics referred to Diana Rigg’s ‘moon’ speech as the high point of the evening while other reviews read like fan letters in praise of her beauty and charm. These responses revealingly suggest a major difference between a play on the page and a play on the stage. The point has been made in Part One of this book that the text of the play makes full sense only if George and Dotty’s situation is both funny and moving, if members of the audience are able to identify with the characters’ alienation from the cynical materialism of the society they inhabit as well as to laugh at it. Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they are essentially innocents in a corrupt world where the majority have learned to play the game. (Significantly, Graham Crowden, who had been so effective as the Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, was cast as the arch-relativist Archie).