STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: THEATER - “The Actress”
It’s already a common joke that actors are vain, selfish, and insecure about themselves, constantly worried about their mortality, and how they can be easily forgot by their audiences if given enough time.
Here’s another story about such people.
Written by Peter Quilter, The Actress revolves around a middle-aged actress, Lydia Martin, who is in the midst of performing her last performance acting in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard before she retires and moving to Switzerland with her new soon-to-be husband.
As the night is about to end, hidden feelings of the various people around Lydia start to reveal themselves when her selfishness takes a toll on everyone.
The Actress presents itself like the film Citizen Kane or a more contemporary example, the Danny Boyle film, Steve Jobs: the title character is a selfish person, and the only decent people are the people around them. In this case, it’s Lydia’s daughter, ex-husband, agent, dresser, and of course, her fiancé. What’s more frustrating is that anytime they try to confront her on her behavior, she claims it’s not her fault or some other way to shift the blame.
That being said, there is something in Lydia that everyone can relate to: mortality. She wants attention from as many people as possible. By the end of the play, she laments that she needs a script so she knows where she’s going and what her objective is; without it, she is lost.
I’ve never seen any production of The Actress. I discovered the play when looking through plays that are related to the entertainment industry, something that you’ll find as a common re-occurrence when it comes to me and plays.
If Lydia Martin is the type of character you can’t stand, then this play isn’t for you. If you want to see the complexity of how this kind of character is, The Actress is a good play to experience.
Stand around a ghost light, and check it out.
All photos are taken from: http://www.peterquilter.net/THE-ACTRESS.html
