Adapted from CREATING TARTUFFE: AN ACTOR’S APPROACH by Jeffrey Stewart Scott, B.A.
(Thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS)
“Acquaintances become friends
when they agree to play status games together”
(Johnstone 37).
Keith Johnstone developed his form of improvisation
during his tenure at the Royal Court Theatre as a method of actor training.
Eventually, he began to practice improvisation as a theatrical form in and of itself,
with the establishment of Theatresports.
While the main focus of Theatresports is improvisational performances,
A director may use many of Johnstone’s acting techniques during rehearsals.
One element of Johnstone’s approach that is often used is the concept of status,
which I have continuously used in many of my directing roles, including TARTUFFE.
Status is defined by the OED as
“the relative social, professional, or other standing of someone or something.”
Johnstone developed his ideas of playing status
as a technique for actors to make scenes more realistic.
He first noticed the lack of status as a problem when
“actors couldn’t reproduce ‘ordinary’ conversation” (Johnstone 33).
While he was experimenting with ways of infusing action into scenes
that lacked any true physical action,
he saw the Moscow Art Theatre’s production of The Cherry Orchard.
Johnstone writes,
“Everyone on stage seemed to have chosen
the strongest possible motives for each action…
The effect was ‘theatrical’ but not like life as I knew it.
I asked myself for the first time what were the weakest possible motives,
the motives that the characters I was watching might really have had” (Johnstone 33).
When Johnstone directed his actors to raise or lower their status by only a minimal amount,
he discovered that scenes became subsequently more realistic.
For Johnstone, status is not simply inherent, it’s “something one does” (Johnstone 36).
Johnstone found that major changes in status proved to be effective for comedy.
A man slipping on a banana peel is comedic
“if he loses status, and we don’t have any sympathy for him” (Johnstone 40).
However,
“if my poor old blind grandfather falls over I’ll rush up and help him to his feet.
If he’s really hurt I may be appalled” (Johnstone 40).
“Status specialists” are people that are either compulsively high or low status as being
“Status experts” are able to raise or lower their status depending on the situation (Johnstone 35-36).
For the actor, playing status then becomes a tactic to be used in pursuit of the objective or goal.
This becomes apparent when one considers Johnstone’s seesaw principle, which holds that
within the context of a particular relationship,
if one person raises or lowers his or her own status
then the status of the others involved will react in the opposite manner (Johnstone 37).
There is a physical component involved in playing status.
High status players typically
move more smoothly, with greater confidence and with a minimum of extraneous gestures.
They are more inclined to hold eye contact with another, and
they keep their head still when speaking; that in turn leads to a more upright posture.
It is important to understand the difference between control and tension
in terms of physical status.
A high status player is very much in control of his or her body,
but there is a relaxed quality that seems effortless,
due in part to his/her own assuredness of his/her high status position.
If the muscles are tense in an effort to hold the body still,
the rigidity could come across as being defensive.
The result may be interpreted as
a person who is naturally low status trying to affect high status.
Converse to the relaxed stillness of a high status player,
the low status player avoids eye contact, is jerky in movement,
uses extraneous gestures and often has a stammering quality in speech.
There is often a nervous quality to such people (Johnstone 42-43).
Status is a tool that can help an actor
understand the relationships between characters
and explore new avenues of interpretation.
When added to a character that has already been developed by the actor,
status becomes an effective tactic to be used in pursuit of an objective.
Small changes in status can help make a scene more realistic;
larger changes can help portray comedy and tragedy.
Since playing status is a natural activity that humans engage in,
it is important for the actor to understand exactly what playing status entails
so as to be able to convincingly represent
the transactions between characters before an audience.
Status transactions were an important part of the portrayal of Tartuffe.
Tartuffe is high status by nature, even though he is an expert in that he can lower his status when need be.
The final scene of Tartuffe is a big proverbial banana peel.
Tartuffe has raised himself to a position of ultimate status by lowering all those around him.
When the officer arrests him, his status is instantly deprived, much to the audience’s delight,
because there is no sympathy for him.
The actor in the role of Tartuffe continue to play the remnants of high status even after the arrest
because the audience should not have any sympathy for the character.
Had Tartuffe actually felt the pain of his loss of status,
then the audience might have felt some measure of sympathy, despite his vile nature,
and the comedy would have been lost.
Tartuffe may play low status in relation to Orgon in order to raise Orgon’s status,
and stay in his good graces.
Conversely, Tartuffe may play high status with Dorine
to place her in a lower position where she may be more easily dominated.
In some instances the seesaw principle does not hold true.
When Tartuffe confronts Dorine about her excessive cleavage,
she responds by trying to raise her status above his,
an illustration of the conflictive nature of their relationship;
there is distaste between the two, and so neither is willing to lose status to the other.
The intimacy between Orgon and Tartuffe and the strife between Tartuffe and Dorine and the rest of the household
can be understood in terms of status.
A particularly interesting status transaction occurs when
Orgon, who has been hiding under the table, discovers Tartuffe with Elmire.
At this point in the play Tartuffe’s high status is absolute;
he has gained the inheritance of Orgon
as well as discovered a secret that could result in Orgon’s imprisonment.
In spite of this, the dialogue puts Tartuffe in a low status position when Orgon intercepts him.
Stammering, Tartuffe tries to explain the situation, only to have Orgon cast him out.
It is then that Tartuffe plays high status once more, asserting his dominance before exiting.
The reason for Tartuffe’s initial low status was because
he was unprepared to deal with a confrontation with Orgon and was caught off his guard.
The scene mirrors the earlier confrontation with Damis
in that an unseen party catches Tartuffe in an awkward situation.
In the first encounter, Tartuffe is able to successful play low status in order to escape punishment.
The basic tactic behind this status transaction is that by lowering his own status,
Tartuffe raises Damis and makes him out to be the unjust villain.
Tartuffe also appears to be the victim in his low status position,
which compels Orgon to pity him and rebuke Damis for being apparently tyrannical.
The physical embodiment of high status corresponds with Tartuffe’s movements.
There is a graceful quality to him because he believes himself to be invincible.
When Tartuffe plays lower status as a tactic, as in the confrontation with Damis,
the physicality becomes extreme to the point of falling on his knees before Damis
with arms outstretched as if waiting for the executioner’s blade.
It is totally logical then that when caught off-guard in a similar situation,
Tartuffe would instinctively try to employ the same low status tactics that saved him previously.
The confrontation between Tartuffe, Orgon, and Damis
The following excerpt illustrates the use of status as a tactic
(status transactions are labeled in italics):
TARTUFFE.
(lowering himself)
Yes, Brother, I’m a wicked man, I fear:
A wretched sinner, all depraved and twisted,
The greatest villain that has ever existed.
My life’s one heap of crimes,
which grows each minute;
There’s not but foulness and corruption in it;
And I perceive that Heaven, outraged by me,
Has chose this occasion to mortify me.
Charge me with any deed you wish to name;
I’ll not defend myself but take the blame.
Believe what you are told, and drive Tartuffe
Like some base criminal
from beneath your roof;
Yes, drive me hence, and with a parting curse:
I shan’t protest, for I deserve far worse.
ORGON
(lowering Damis).
Ah, you deceitful boy, how dare you try
To stain his purity with so foul a lie?
DAMIS.
What! Are you taken in by such a bluff?
Did you not hear…?
ORGON.
Enough, you rogue, enough!
TARTUFFE
(raising Damis to lower himself further)
Ah, Brother, let him speak: you’re being unjust.
Believe his story; the boy deserves your trust.
Why, after all, should you have faith in me?
How can you know what I might do, or be?
Is it on my good actions that you base
Your favor? Do you trust my pious face?
Ah, no, don’t be deceived by hollow shows;
I’m far, alas, from being what men suppose;
Though the world takes me for a man of worth.
I’m truly the most wretched man on earth.
(To Damis, apparently lowering himself
but actually raising his status)
Yes, my dear son, speak out now:
call me the chief
Of sinners, a wretch, a murderer, a thief;
Load me with all the names men most abhor;
I’ll not complain; I’ve earned them all,
and more;
(falling on his knees,
extremely lowering himself)
I’ll kneel here while you pour them on my head
As a just punishment for the life I’ve led.
