Saturday, July 10, 2010

Mark Rylance: Acting is just play. You have to look for the joyful thing - Profiles, People - The Independent

Mark Rylance: Acting is just play. You have to look for the joyful thing - Profiles, People - The Independent:

By this, he means not just his own enjoyment, but the audience's. Here, he goes off on one about theatre architecture. "Imagine the Old Vic with no seats in the stalls," he raves. "Fantastic! All the seats in all stalls should be removed. There should be bars in there instead, and people standing around with food and drink and the ability to slip out easily if the play is boring." Theatre should be direct, wild and fun.

"My objective in a play," he says, "is to get the audience involved. Get them out of their concerns and into the concerns of a fantasy world. So when they then step back into their lives, they've had the effect that a holiday gives you, when for a few fleeting minutes after getting home, you think, 'oh – I see what needs to be done with my life'."