Carry on Corpsing

We're into the final week of our run now and the show is humming along nicely with full houses, a happy director and lots of laughs from the audience... and the cast. I don't think I've ever been in a show where myself and the other actors have corpsed so often. 'Corpsing' is yet another luvvie term to describe the naughty act of breaking out of character to laugh at something. The origins of the term are unclear however according to Wikipedia it came about when other actors would attempt to make the poor work-experience actor playing a corpse on stage laugh.

A bit of corpsing in the right place is not necessarily a bad thing and is sometimes done deliberately to get a laugh. Most times the audience enjoy the actors losing it on stage as they believe they are seeing something unqiue and watching other people trying not to laugh is extremely funny. The last third of this show has some great comedic moments and the point where Bill Sykes realises he is cured of his erectile dysfunction is a good place to corpse because the punters can laugh at Bill Sykes getting a semi-on and laugh at us laughing at Bill Sykes getting a semi-on.

Speaking of semi-ons I used to work at a wine club and the only thing that got me through six hours on the phones trying to hock booze at dinner time to suspicious members was being able to say things like, "Have you ever had a sémillon before?", "I've got a nice sémillon on hand", and "I think you'd love to wrap your lips around this sweet white sémillon." Good times....good times.

When corpsing can be an issue is when it happens at a dramatic, dreadful or dull part of a performance. Unfortunately this is usually when it does happen as all the actors are getting bored and there's nothing funnier than a bunch of people trying to be serious. There are two main corpsing catalysts. The first can be termed the 'cock-up-corpse', when the corpsing begins as a result of another actor's cock-up. Cock-up corpsing can erupt from a muffed line, a missed cue, a trip over furniture or a costume malfunction. As professional actors we should be able to stay in it when someone says 'Michelle Duvauchele' instead of  'Monsieur Duvauchele' or when Bill Sykes begins improvising and throws in an unexpected 'knob-jockey' reference however I and most of my fellow cast have found it impossible to do so.

I'm quite lucky in that I sit with my back to the audience so I can just put my head down and pretend to be studying my lap-top while I snigger, snort and shudder. If the audience are paying close attention they may notice my shoulders shaking however they will put it down to a fine display of  back acting. The actor facing me who I shall refer to as 'Hibiscus' does not have this luxury and must continue to face the audience and deliver dialogue with my contorted cheeky face laughing like a stifled hyena directly in her sight line. Corpsing is contagious and is spread by making eye contact with another corpser. Even if you're managing to keep it together, one stray glance at a giggler is guaranteed to set you off. The only way to stop the corpsing circle of death is to avoid eye-contact with anyone at all costs, even if this means delivering your 'To be or not to be' speech to the chair that your foot is on. If when watching a play you notice that none of the actors are looking at each other it either means there is corposing afoot or that each actor has found out another member of the cast has been rooting the cast-member they thought they were rooting exclusively.

The second corpsing catalyst is the known as the 'naughty actor', 'angel of death' or in our case 'Mr Bumble'. They deliberately try to send their fellow performers up by using old tricks like the tongue in cheek blowie simulation, the under the breath sexual advance or the old favourite of flopping it out in the wings as the other actors look off-stage. Sometimes Mr Bumble manages to set us all off simply by not getting a laugh on one of his lines he's that damned good. Every show needs a Mr Bumble. According to Peter Brook the world is riddled with deadly theatre and in my humble opinion where there's corpsing there's life.