Chapter 6 - Theatre performances

Summary

The complex relationship between acting and stardom depends, according to Barry King, on the mediation of the labour market (1985: 27). Acting as a discursive practice in film and television produces a particular kind of performance strategy that must continually ‘negotiate a way through the forcefield of other practices’ (King 1985: 27). In Richard Dyer's words, in order to become a star those other practices are located ‘at the point of intersection of public demand (the star as a phenomenon of consumption) and producer initiative (the star as a phenomenon of production)’ (1998: 10). While the applicability of the term ‘star’ to both stage and screen performers is contested, it is widely accepted among actors that ‘stage acting provides a yardstick against which to evaluate acting on screen’ (King 1985: 28). Darín himself is of this opinion. For him, ‘theatre is the place of resistance for the actor. It provides time to experiment, research, to make mistakes, and it is there where great things are created’ [‘El teatro es un lugar de resistencia del actor. Aquí hay tiempo para experimentar, investigar, para la equivocación, donde nacen cosas muy buenas’] (quoted in Paredes 2019).

King further explored this assumption that it is on the stage that the actor is best placed to realise her/his creative potential as a result of multiple factors, including the performer's desire to be associated with an ‘elite institution’ – the ‘great’ tradition of the stage – and the claim of the profession's autonomy (1985: 28). With respect to this he said that ‘it is in the theatre that actors have the greatest degree of direct control over the signifying direction and grain of their performance – even if this control is only unevenly realised in practice’ (1985: 33). Darín also praises the power of self-control granted by a live performance in front of an audience when he explained that ‘in cinema, in television and in other formats you have the possibility of cutting and doing it again; in theatre you can’t.