A combination of social media and surveillance has already distorted our sense of self. In a new age of online identity, the ideas of warped individuality and performance are not really new concepts; so director Gillian Wearing has a lot to do in her genre-defying documentary on “acting” in society to examine these changes more resourcefully.
It’s an extremely slow burner as method acting teacher Sam Rumbelow invites a group of individuals with troubled personal lives, some quite extreme, to take part in a series of workshops that teach them the principles of Stanislavski’s acting theory. After trawling through the various techniques, Wearing offers the chance for some of the participants to have their own short films made based around their personal ordeals, shot on location in Newcastle.
This film is bound to divide opinion, as for it to succeed, it relies on its audience’s acceptance of the method acting technique. This can make the film painfully inaccessible, as we must watch the build-up to the final shorts which almost deifies the technique as a miracle principal which can unlock our deepest repressions. Yet as the documentary goes on, it becomes apparent that this build-up is necessary, as the pay off in the individual films becomes so much more worthwhile. Ash, an immigrant based in England, imagines the worst scenario possible – attacking a pregnant woman and killing her child – and breaks down after the filming of his scene. While this may seem needlessly brutal, it’s about how he utilises the memories of his childhood to embody the rage present in his early life. However, you can’t help but long for the overall comment the film is making to appear, and for it to truly succeed, it must marry the ideas of performance in society to the nature of our afflicted individuals more directly. While touching, it would then become more than just a meditation on the power of method acting.
Correction 25/10: original analysis stated Ash worked in the corporate sector and witnessed his father abuse his mother.