STAR TANTRUMS

Some unscripted lines on stage






There was an American lady who acted in a couple of the plays I put up many years ago. She was a very good actress. But she was very touchy about interruptions. If there was even the smallest disturbance from the audience she would toss her head and flounce off the stage disdainfully. We had to quickly lower the curtain, and then some of us went front to explain to the audience that there would be a slight delay, while some others rushed to the green room and tried to cajole the actress into resuming her role.

And when she finally agreed to ascend the stage, she gave a flawless performance while we kept our fingers crossed that there will be no more disturbances.

Impromptu


There was another actor who had a meaty role in one of the plays I put up in Madras Christian College. He was a haughty person who looked down upon most of us, but did play a few roles on stage where he portrayed gentle and sensitive characters. On one occasion he was supposed to deliver a soul-searching speech.

He paused periodically for dramatic effect. When one of these pauses stretched a bit too long, the prompter thought that the actor needed prompting and so he spoke the next line, not once but twice since the actor didn’t seem to have heard it.

But then the actor turned to the prompter and yelled, “I know that”. And then he went on with his speech, paralyzing the prompter for quite some time.

Very famous actors too have had this temperamental fits. John Barrymore was a famous Shakespearean actor. He was once acting as “Richard III”. King Richard is a remarkable character whom only the genius of Shakespeare could have created. He was a hunchback and quite plain looking, but had a charming and persuasive tongue.

He once had a man killed and then took part in the funeral. The man’s widow tries to ignore him and insult him. But King Richard keeps talking to her in such a charming way that soon she agrees to marry him. Such were the persuasive powers of the hunchback king. So, later when his troops start retreating during a war Richard just has to go and talk to them, and they would willingly come back to fight. But he can’t reach them since his horse has been killed. If only he had had the horse he could have met his men and turned the tide of war. In great anguish he says, “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.” John Barrymore put everything he had into that line. The audience was tense and thrilled as Barrymore delivered the line except for one man who started laughing.

Barrymore looked at the offending viewer and said, “An ass will do”. And the theatre erupted into laughter. Barrymore didn’t bother to maintain the mood of the scene, but was more particular about putting that man down.

Temperamental


I was once watching the shooting of a Tamil film in a studio in Kodambakkam.

A famous actress who was also a great dancer was playing a simple scene. I was a film reporter at that time, and along with me there were a few more film journalists.

And there were also some other guests who were friends of the director or producer. The scene called for the actress to enter the room, sit on the floor and say a few sentences. “Vaangamma” said director Bhimsingh, and the actress came in.

She stopped short when she saw the crowd of visitors, and then quickly turned and went out. A few assistant directors rushed to her side. “I can’t go on with so many people gaping at me” she said in a rude tone.

The assistant directors came back to us and begged us to wait outside the set, which we did immediately. They were hesitant to ask the guests of the producer and director to go.

But the guests themselves, sensing the problem, quickly left the scene. And then the heroine resumed shooting. After all this fuss the scene turned out to be an ordinary one.

It all seemed much ado about nothing.