Less is Most Definitely More

I was having a conversation with my friend, an actress called Kirstin a few months ago.  She said ‘we don’t need to paint a picture for the audience’.  I kept thinking about that over the past few weeks and it troubles me, not because I disagree, but because I agree some entirely and have been thinking the same thing for a long time.

It’s as if actors feel that when they act, they need to explain something, their understanding of the role, the truth, the reality, the emotion, something to the audience. But the thing is, in general, the audience are much smarter than we are, and there’s lots of them.

In an actor’s performance, the rule is keep it simple.  Simple.  Do less.  Don’t paint the picture for the audience, don’t insult their intelligence, or crave their indulgence, be simple.  I’m not talking about the type of dead fish, no emotion, no change acting we might associated with superficial acting, it can still be deeply moving.

Instead, the confidence actor realises they are not put in front of the audience to SHOW them something, but to tell them a story.  And to do that, they must carry out the actions* of the character.  *By actions, I do not mean the activities of the character, I mean DO a real-world version of whatever the character is doing fictionally.

Sure, there’s times, when the actor needs to do more.  And there’s times when the actor needs to do less.

Here’s a SECRET.  It’s so simple, you’re going to think I’m being facetious.

The general rule of thumb is… with realistic material, DO LESS, in heightened language plays, DO MORE. With Psychological Realism, let’s say CHEKHOV, do less, and heightened poetry, let’s say SHAKESPEARE, do more.

Is it that simple? Why shouldn’t it be?  Try it for yourself.  Launch yourself at Shakespeare, subtle subtle subtle with Chekhov, Miller, Mamet, Vogel etc etc etc.

Sometimes you need more, sometimes you need less. The trick is knowing when.