Playing the Game! The Pleasure and the Pain

“Theatre equals the pleasure of the game plus play” Philippe Gaulier

I am currently in Étampes, a ‘charming medieval town’ also known as Little Venice… but not in any Lonely Planet. Étampes is not a tourist location, but then again, tourism is the last thing I feel like doing during a Pandemic. Instead I am joining the extensive lineage of students who have made the journey to an otherwise obscure village to have their ego destroyed by the famous tormentor and clown teacher, Philippe Gaulier. It is everything I hoped for; cutting remarks, blistering roasts and comparisons to a shitty hairdresser.

None of this I take personally, that is part of surviving Gaulier’s pedagogy but I am left to decipher their meaning. While we are part of the Philippe Show, with the world’s most famous heckler alongside Statler & Waldorf from the Muppet Show…there are some notes to work with, you just have to figure out what they mean (yes the shitty hairdresser was a useful remark). His ‘via negative’ approach apparently encourages the student has to do most of the work for much of the time. That’s if they haven’t been so abused they refuse to leave their seats again. Oh but he does dearly love his students.

Gaulier said, “Theatre equals the pleasure of the game plus play”. But it is literally the hardest thing to do; to tap into your pleasure when you’re in a state of panic, terror or frustration.
 
So while I’ve learned that this style of pedagogy is not really for me, it’s got me thinking a lot about how to and access pleasure and play. Games can be a key. In our movement class with Carlo we explore games as the starting point for improvised scenes with a myriad of effects:
 
Authentic reactions – how the actor plays, how competitive they are, as well as their emotional response to winning and losing all become apparent while playing a game. And when we see this we can fall in love with them.
Impulse – the game can provide an impulse that drives the text and the scene
Connection – simply by playing high stakes game the players connect, through eye contact as well as action and reaction
Life – games create a sense of immediacy and liveness for a scene as opposed to getting stuck in our head, restricted by thoughts
Jeopardy – a bit of healthy competition can raise the stakes and the energy of the scene and the actors
Subtext – in some cases a playing hidden game can provide an interesting subtext to the scene

In class we play the following games:
 
Grandma’s Footsteps - to train the ensemble to work together and play with the opportunity of ‘getting caught’ by grandma. From here we try to be charming so we can get closer like singing a song or creating a dance
 
Steal the tail – while improvising a basic scene between two actors each has steal the tail (a scarf tucked in the back of their trousers). Whoever has the tail plays in major and should taunt and tease the other with the stolen tail. The aim is to let the game and its impulses drive the scene and the text.
 
Hand slaps – also known as slapsies and red hand, the same improvised scene begins with the actors playing the game of slaps again using the impulses of winning and losing, and of pleasure and pain to play the game.

 “…if the work is playful it becomes pleasurable, and when you’re enjoying yourself you get bolder and take more risks.’  John Wright

The trick now is to take those risks to play and find pleasure…even if I fail.