Cause Celebre - IdeasTap

CAUSE CélèBRE – TEACHINg RESOURCES
was fatal, it became un-spontaneous. It’s really important to remain open to collaboration. The genius of Rattigan is that
his understanding of the human condition, and his words and his characters are all so precise and real and you just need to
allow that to inform you, rather than thinking about does this guy have a twitch or something.
How was it working with such precise stage directions?
Rattign is quite specific, nothing like Feydeau who wrote pages of precise stage directions. I’ve found that as a young,
inexperienced actor going into this and hearing on the first day of rehearsal Nick Jones saying “If you don’t pay attention to
is punctuation and his little stage directions it’s at your peril”. Of course he was quite right. With filming you can so used to
reading a script and going, I don’t need to pause there. That’s the way of filming; you mould and adapt a script more. With
this, he’s so precise. With where his pauses are, if you observe his pauses and then press on with the dialogue you see how
exact and how right it is. How the scene starts to move in the right direction as soon as you pay attention to the pauses.
What have you learned from this process?
Lot’s. Trusting good writing. When you are working with great actors allow them to inform your performance: responding to
someone creates great drama. Not going out and doing it all on your own. From Thea I’ve learnt from her precise notes and
her insight into Rattigan.
How much do you think young people today, 17 year olds who come and see the play, will see themselves in
Tony?
I think if you are a young man you see the frustration that young guys have with their parents. Saying “I am a man, Mum,
I am a man. Stop patronising me and treating me like a child”: every boy goes through that. That’s the crux of Tony. And
discovering sex, every boy does it!
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