Watching Guy Masterson perform reminds me of watching an acrobat during a highly sophisticated balancing act where everything must be done at the right place, the right time, and in the right proportion. The true mastery of his acting lies in the fact that he perfectly combines and balances elements of comedy, drama, and even melodrama. This creates a mix that keeps the audience oscillating continuously between different emotional reactions, while all the while being mesmerised by Masterson’s performance.
In this one man show, Masterson portrays an actor who reaches his fifties only to realise that his career never took off. In a final bid to turn around his luck, he has invested everything he owns in a one-man production of Hamlet. The play is set backstage thirty minutes before the performance begins where we watch the actor desperately trying to maintain his confidence in the face of what appears to be certain failure, by using all the ‘tricks’ of the acting trade from warm ups to breathing exercises. As his confidence abandons him, his life-story unravels.
The play is very varied and wonderfully written. Although incredibly humorous – the audience laughed a lot during the performance, particularly when the stereotypical Actor was made fun of – it also contains moments of genuine insight that are full of empathy towards the man and his shortcomings. It is during some of these moments that the playwright ‘borrows’ Shakespeare’s monologues and Guy Masterson delivers excerpts of the most sensitively-acted Hamlet I have ever seen. There are certain moments when the whole thing is on the verge of becoming melodramatic, but it is always balanced out again. This production is also complemented by a wonderful lighting design that assists in the transitions between various emotional states, allowing them to be made seamlessly, and absorbing the audience.
At the risk of sounding like a bit of a groupie, I will probably be watching The Half again before the Fringe is over.