Play your part: Martin Wimbush takes the stage

‘The Quaker tradition has taught me to be honest with myself.’

As a professional actor, I’ve been thinking about how my Quaker beliefs have affected me in so many ways, both on and off the stage.

The Quaker tradition has taught me to be honest with myself, that you’re the one person you cannot fool. Shakespeare put it perfectly in the mouth of Polonius, in Hamlet: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.’

My faith has also taught me to listen more carefully, to let go when you want to hang on, to enjoy the busy times and accept the quiet ones and be patient. Sometimes that’s difficult, because you spend most of your time as an actor waiting: waiting for things to happen, waiting for your agent to call, waiting to hear, waiting for your cue, waiting to be called. Perhaps, as the saying goes, ‘Life is what happens when you’re waiting for something else’.

The aim of every actor is to tell the truth, to hold ‘the mirror up to nature’ (Hamlet himself, this time). When that happens, you’re running like a man possessed, like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire when he said: ‘When I run, I feel His pleasure.’ I know what he means. When I’m acting well, I feel God’s pleasure – that wonderful feeling of being totally at one with your part, and knowing the audience is completely with you. This is a balancing act but when you get that balance right – not just in your work, but in your life – you feel good. Ring any bells? It’s a mixture of total confidence in your own ability and total humility as to what you’ve got to offer.

Now, over time, my life has changed. But my priorities haven’t: family, friends, work, Quakers – it’s just getting the balance right!

The last word must go to Peter Brook, the great theatre director. In a very moving interview with Glenda Jackson on Radio 4, he was asked how he retained – aged ninety-six – his capacity for curiosity and his ability to keep on going. He replied: ‘I try to connect with my inner self and the continual search for silence and air and calm and also to declutter the mind and breathe, to sit quietly and let be… you’re not given everything on a plate, you have to search and work for it, right until your last breath. Keep on going, don’t give up.’

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Comments

Martin, I just wanted to say hello. We last saw each other in 1979, I think, when I was teaching in Newham and living in a tower block in Stratford. I remember my excitement when I came to see you in Outside Edge with a backstage pass. I wasn’t a Quaker then and I don’t think you were either, but we did talk about faith. I’m now an author and activist and my book for Extinction Rebellion is reviewed in this issue. Very best wishes, Sue.

By suehampton@btinternet.com on 15th July 2021 - 13:13

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