Last night I saw Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens”, with Simon Russell Beale in the principal role.    I quote the man himself: ” It is an important part of our job, as the cast of a great classic play, to lead the audience through a detailed, thought-through argument or series of arguments”.  An actor, he continues has to distil the line of thought in a character’s head, and understand the playwright’s words before he utters a word.

Once understood, he also has to communicate the words – all the words (this is a frustrated audience member speaking) .

Even from such a famous Shakespearean actor I did not catch, let alone understand, 40% of his words, and this difficulty got worse as the play went on.  When I was an amateur actor we were incessantly told by the director that the audience was paying to hear, not 60% of the words, but all of them, and that clarity and projection were part of our job . With Shakespeare this is particularly important. How many people sit through a Shakespeare play and get only an impression of the plot?  In Washington D.C the actors are all too often just chatting among themselves as if the audience didn’t exist. One should expect better of the British National Theatre.

Was Mr. Russell Beale told that the show had to end at 10p.m or there would be overtime due to the stage hands?  From the gabbling of all concerned I fear so.  This muttering, and inarticulate spitting and word swallowing is prevalent in the US and Britain and particularly in the movies, where the words don’t seem to matter, a relic of French Impressionism.

Who will rid us of this horrible way of communicating with a paying audience?  Or are all actors just too wrapped up in themselves to help?