The idea behind The Lockdown Theatre Company is not only to give a little exposure to a few actors whilst theatres themselves are closed; but to also showcase the writing of the company's creator Rohan Candappa. As far as I have seen so far, all the monologues online (shared on YouTube) have been written by Candappa, and this is no exception.
It is therefore going to be true that some of the scripts are going to be more relatable or mature than others, and some scripts will resonate more than others. Here, in this interestingly premised piece, 'An Actor Resigns', Candappa shows a mature knowledge of acting and an actors' craft, as well as camerwork and how a camera captures emotion, and also the actor / audience relationship. If all of that sounds very technical and "a bit too much" for the average layman, do not fret, Nigel Godfrey's resignation and reinvention is here to help!
It's a very strange and arresting start to any monologue, for an actor to walk in front of the audience as themselves, annoucing that they are an actor, and then saying they are resigning from being an actor, but Godfrey's soliloquy to a pair of excellently positions cameras (one for his 'asides') is superbly thought out.
It is, Godfrey states, the greatest paradox of all, an actor wanting to be seen, to be lauded and noticed, and yet in order to do this the actor must hide behind a character, it is never 'the actor' but always the character. The answer to the most famous question of all time is "To be AND not to be".
In this longer but more complex and news-documentary-styled piece, we learn about Godfrey's (Candappa's) thoughts on acting and the actor / audience relationship. He asks questions, the most important being "Who is theatre for?", coming to the conclusion that perhaps the words 'theatre' and 'actor' are misleading or offputting, and so, since storytelling is in all of our DNAs, Godfrey resigns as an actor but re-signs as a storyteller.
It's a nice take on an age-old discussion and perhaps he has a point; afterall, what has he done but tell a story, and we, the audience, have listened and enjoyed.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 22/8/20
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