Corpse. Noun and verb.
Verb theatrical. Slang. 1 intr. Spoil a piece of acting by forgetting
one's lines, laughing etc. 2 tr. Confuse (an actor) in the
performance of his or her part. b. spoil (a piece of acting) by some
blunder. Definition from the CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY.
I can be a bit of a
giggler and it seems the more serious the acting piece is the greater
the compulsion to laugh in inappropriate places becomes. My issue is
not necessarily the nature of the piece but the person I am acting
opposite. It boils down to the way a word is said, a particular look
in the face of the other actor during a scene or sometimes just the
position of the body. I can honestly say I have never ruined a play
or a scene by laughing or giggling, but there have been some close
calls.
The habit can develop
during rehearsals when you discover the 'funny' thing by accident or
design and you collapse with laughter and then try to regain the
equilibrium. Looking at the other actor between the eyes, not in the
eyes, but between the eyes and above the bridge of the nose can help.
But once you start down the route of self reprimanding “Stop it!
Now just stop it!” the chuckle muscles have another reason to flex
themselves again and again. I have seen actors smack themselves
around the face to cure this disease. That makes me laugh even more.
Occasionally we have had to move to a completely different scene to
regain normality.
Turning your body and
face away from the audience can help you focus on the seriousness of
the matter, but they will often see the shoulders going up and down.
There are theatrical
stories of some cruel actors (often bored on long runs) who play
tricks on their fellow actors by various means to see if they can
make them laugh i.e. placing objects in places they shouldn't be or
writing funny notes for the actors and putting them in a 'serious'
stage letter and waiting for the actor to crack up. In the industry
there are several very established actors such as Judy Dench and
Patrick Stewart who are inveterate gigglers.
I have a had few
memorable times on stage and in rehearsals when I have had to contain
my laughter and really work very hard at getting through a particular
scene without corpsing. The ones that stand out are working with a
lovely actor called Piotr for the first time in a musical play called
Poppy. I was playing Tao Kuan – Emperor of China and Piotr was Lin
Tse Tsii – Commissioner to China. There was a particular scene
where Piotr (wonderfully expressive face) was spouting some serious
verse and he just looked so comical. I could hardly stop myself from
laughing each night and was mightily relieved to escape from the
scene and into the safety of the wings without breaking into gales of
laughter. In fact the Poppy play was so full of silly situations and
silly names that I'm surprised that more of us didn't giggle more on
stage.
I have often had
similar situations acting with my friend, Alison Hope and in the
play, Abigail's Party we played tetchy husband and wife. In one part
of the play her character was supposed to come on stage out of breath
and giggling. To achieve this realistically she asked me to tickle
her each night as we waited in the wings and then she would explode
on to the set as Beverley in tucks.
In the 1980s I went to
Derby Playhouse to see a professional production of a Joe Orton play
where there was a live actor playing the part of a corpse. Must of
the time he was hidden from view behind a piece of furniture or a
screen. On the night I went I saw this 'corpse' subtly scratch their
left leg. I nearly died laughing.
"Look here Mrs Elvsted, at this document." "I'm not looking! You've written a rude word."
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