I have an acquaintance whose infant son has landed his first dramatic role. He is two and a half, and will be playing one of the Three Wise Men in his nursery nativity play. The part calls for him to deliver the line “I have myrrh”.
He has been rehearsing with admirable diligence. It is, I think, a credit to his acting skills that, while one rarely, if ever, encounters myrrh in 21st century Britain, he gives a compelling performance and one truly believes that, yes, this small child does indeed have myrrh. And he has been able to inhabit fully the character of the Wise Man without having to ask the director “what’s my motivation?”. He comes to it naturally.
As Sir Laurence Olivier said to Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man, when the latter expressed surprise that Olivier did not employ “the Method”, “It’s called acting, dear boy”.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of this tot’s acting talent very, very soon… Perhaps next year he’ll take on ‘I have frankincense’? In any event, ‘I have gold’ cannot be long in coming…
This post came to mind this evening whilst sitting through Banished Jrs. Xmas extravaganza. It was also enlivened by a moment in the musical number “Christmas All Over The World” where the musical backing took on such a oompah quality that it slipped into “Springtime For Hitler” territory. Which thought caused me to laugh out loud and draw unwelcome attention to my overall lack of parental adoration. My god that was an untalented bunch of children, Banished Jr. excepted obviously.