REFLECTIONS

I recently had the pleasure of visiting two performances of a student production at Auckland's 'School of Performing and Screen Arts' at UNITEC. It was a cabaret appropriately named LET YOURSELF GO! A cast of ten singing, with great enthusiasm, twenty swinging songs from thethirties, forties and fifties.This was an energetic and vigorous production overlaid with the individual stories of ten characters providing a thoroughly entertaining evening. Performances worthy of reflecting upon.

The cast warm up for the final show.

The Experience of Doing It

Cabaret on the surface appears to be a very different form of entertainment and a very different performance process to a dramatic production - but is it?

The dressing room pre-show.

Common Threads As this cabaret show unfolded it became clear that the foundations of performance were the same for cabaret as they are for drama. The communication with the audience evolved from their identification with the journey of the characters and that hinged on achieving an understanding of the character's quest and the degree of success or failure experienced as their story unfolded. There was definitely a specific vocal and movement process underlying the action but the communication power of the show and therefore its entertainment came from the simple base of truthful characters and real story.

Inevitably the songs were love songs and they therefore explored the expectations, disappointments, excitement, despair, comfort and even the absurdities of falling in love. The actor's task was to engage with these circumstance. They did this by relating the circumstances of the songs to the circumstances of their character's lives, which were also revealed through brief vignettes during the introductions or musicals bridges of the songs.

Dual Intentions
What is interesting to reflect upon about cabaret is that during a song, often the performer's intention was focused on the audience and not on the character with whom they were sharing the story. When the singers intention was focused on the audience they were often playing "to share", sometimes "to please" and occasionally "to convince". This produced active, engaging and satisfactorily complex performances while the story continued to unfold through the lyrics of the song.

In an evening solely focused on romance it is not hard to guess what intentions were being played between characters. So what was learnt from attending two performances? Confidence is a major factor in performance and so it was interesting to observe that although some performers had strong singing voice sometimes this was not accompanied by a similarly strong performance presence.This was surprising because it could be assumed that a good voice would greatly enhanceperformance confidence in a show that was based entirely around song. On the other hand some actors who were less capable in the vocal department managed to confidently engage and entertain the audience. None of these imbalances disturbed the thrust or intention of an entertaining production for the show was well structured and directed - but they were observable factors.

Kiel McNaughton andLiesha Ward-Knox

Barnaby James commencing his make up.

The Excitement of Final Night The second performance I attended was a very different show to the previous one. Reflection upon the causes of the changes suggests the first consideration was that this was the final night of the show. After a two week run, during which the cast had obviously enjoyed the enthusiastic responses of their audiences, there seemed to be a collective objective that this final performance should have lots of zing. Everyone was revved up.

This meant that some performances that previously had been inwardly focused and a little introverted were now rushing out to meet the audience. Whereas previously the performer may have been shyly exploring the personal feelings that the circumstances or song provoked, now they were boldly sharing these feelings with the audience.

Was this simply the enthusiasm of a final night?

Growing Confidence In some cases it could just have been the growing confidence acquired during the run, culminating in an enthusiastic finale. But on the other hand for some performers it seemed to be significantly more than that. For some a change in attitude had occurred. It appeared that instead of being shy or cautious about revealing their inner personal thoughts to the audience they had for some reason this night given themselves permission to do so. Permission had been granted to shout from the rooftops or at least very plainly declare that "they loved this person" or that "they desired that person". No longer were there inhibiting factors limiting the actors' connection to the characters' intention.

Leisha Ward-Knox and Kerry Warkia during the warm-up.

These were sensual, flirtatious even lusty performances. For along with the 'permission' came a comfortable ownership that made sharing the character's desires with the audience an OK thing to do. Without hesitation the audience experienced the privilege of being invited in to the most raucous, intimate and sensual thoughts of the character. This was an invigorating experience for the audience who responded by sharing their own enthusiasm for the proceedings. This is the wonderful environment that theatre offers.

Obviously that actors give themselves permission to venture into these very private experiences in the public forum of a theatrical performance is a major contributing factor to a successful outcome. These young performances also tell us that it maybe takes considerable effort, trust and practice to be able to acclimatize to such a revealing display.

Swings and Roundabouts.
With many intentions being played to the hilt there were other outcomes on the ambience of the show. As always happens when needs are played strongly character complexity is reduced. Strong intentions lead people towards obsessive behaviour. Obsessive behaviour restricts the options a character might consider and therefore shrinks the complexity of the drama and the performance. So the gains that were made in energy and commitment were counterbalanced by a slight drop in the complexity of performances. This was not a problematic outcome purely the logical outcome of shifting performance influences.

Clear purpose of story and trusted actors' intentions make for a good performance outcome, so the swings and balances of these two evenings did not upset the delivery of a great evenings entertainment. However the two shows were distinctly different by virtue of the circumstances of the night and a brave growth in understanding of the performance process by some of the performers. These are the lessons that can only be learnt by getting up on your feet and doing it.

Richard Sarell

August, 2001

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