Interludes

VIEWPOINTS: Theater in the Third Person

• By drediman
• March 15, 2014
• No Comments

I’ve been spending an hour or two each day over the last week watching the recording of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s nine-hour adaptation of Charles Dickens’ sprawling “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” from the early 1980s. As I near the conclusion of this legendary production, I’ve been surprised by how consistently I’ve been genuinely moved as the young protagonists from the play fly from challenge to challenge. What is it about the RSC’s staging that strikes a chord in me? Upon some reflection, I posit the theory that the device of having actors vacillate between the first and third person (as it relates to the same characters the actors play in the first person) enhances and deepens one’s connection to each character’s journey.

In “Nicholas Nickleby”, the actors playing substantial characters, notably Nicholas and his sister Kate, use this device. The effect is intriguing upon further analysis. In this RSC production, we typically first see Nicholas and Kate’s struggles enacted in the first person, played out as in your typical naturalistic play. Then, often times during or subsequent to this first person enactment, the characters reflect upon their plights by expressing unspoken thoughts or narrating “un-acted” stretches of the plot (like spoken stage directions) by switching perspectives to the third person. This device is akin to Shakespearean soliloquies. However, instead of utilizing the first person to convey the characters’ inner thoughts, the third person is used. As opposed to distancing me from the characters, which I initially thought this device would do, I find that this use of the third person actually heightens my empathy towards the characters and their situations. Although the actors (who are still in costume) use the third person, there is very much a residual of the characters they are playing in them. Trapped between our world and the world of the play, these wraith-like entities become powerful conduits for not just efficient storytelling, but also for compelling theater.  I argue that this device, which is used in abundance in the RSC’s “Nicholas Nickleby”, creates a stronger bridge to the characters than the use of soliloquies, let alone naturalistic first person acting.

“Nicholas Nickleby” is not unique in employing this device. It has also been used by the following shows that I’ve seen over the years, perhaps in reaction to the success of its use in “Nicholas Nickleby”.

Alvin McCraney’s extraordinary trio of plays that comprise “The Brother/Sister Plays” (“The Brothers Size”, “In the Red and Brown Water”, and “Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet”) are another instance of the use of this device. In his plays, McCraney, a young, exciting playwright, uses this technique less for the “soliloquy-effect” and more as a storytelling tool (the actors verbalize what almost seem like stage directions). I saw these plays in an unforgettable repertory mounting, directed by the talented Tina Landau, at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater.

Rick Elice’s tremendously fun and tender stage adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s young adult fantasy book “Peter and the Starcatchers”, which recently ended its Off-Broadway/Broadway/Off-Broadway runs and is currently touring the U.S., is the most direct descendant of “Nicholas Nickleby” in its use of this third person device. In fact, its use of the device directly mirrors its usage in “Nicholas Nickleby”. This is no big surprise since Roger Rees, who played the title character in the aforementioned “Nicholas Nickleby”, was enlisted to direct “Starcatcher”.

Agnes de Mille’s dream ballets for some of Rogers and Hammerstein’s iconic musicals (such as “Oklahoma!” and “Carousel”) are, in a way, versions of this third person device. In these beautifully and rightly celebrated choreographic sequences, dancers in character garb take over the persona of the character from the actors playing them up until that point. The actors then literally behold their characters in the third person, resulting in emotionally charged dance (in many ways, these wordless dances are soliloquies in motion). Susan Stroman and the  late Sir Kenneth MacMillan, both renown choreographers in their own right, have in recent years put their stamp on these dances for the wonderful National Theatre revivals of “Oklahoma!” and “Carousel”, respectively.

Dave Malloy’s fabulous and immersive “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812”, which closed earlier this month in New York, is the only musical I know of that uses this device in the very same manner. The musical’s final 15 minutes, particularly in concert with Malloy’s emotive music, are that much more devastating because of it.