Pure acting
WE go to the theatre for many reasons, but one of them is to see fine acting. In a diverse month, I caught a number of performances that reminded me of what a famous theatre critic, C. E. Montague, once said were the key elements of great acting: ‘A plastic physical medium, a finished technical cunning and a passion of joy in the thought of the character acted.’
Although he is still too young to be called a great actor, I found all those qualities in the performance of Paapa Essiedu in Caryl Churchill’s at the Old Vic. Mr Essiedu—already an admired Hamlet for the RSCplays three
