MARIA AITKEN
ACTING IN HIGH COMEDY
The BBC Acting Series

“A lively session on high comedy, with examples from Coward, Wilde, Sheridan, and Congreve revealing the spark that transforms a routine reading into a vibrant one in a scene from Private Lives, which by the time Aitken has finished with it has attained something close to brilliance.”— The London Times

'Language is a kind of decoy for your real feelings,' says Maria Aitken, a magical stylist of high comedy. In getting her young audience to play scenes from Coward and Wilde, she shows them and us exactly what she means. Enchanting!” –The Daily Mail

“There is only one moment in High Comedy and that moment is now.”—Maria Aitken

“High comedies are not bloodless, refined, wordy plays—their themes are sex, money and social advancement. They contain a splendid contradiction: wit and elegance at the service of man's basest drives. The whole reason that high comedy has proved such a durable form is that it reveals the truth about human nature, arts and all, but does so with glorious pyrotechnics of language and behavior. It uses society's most sophisticated social accomplishments, intellect and wit, to mock society itself; the glitter reveals the grubbiness.”—Maria Aitken

“Style is not a manner of performing. It is the relationship between content and form. The content includes the society of the play, the genre of the play, and the period both of play and author. The form is the manner in which we express these characteristics. There are unfortunately no short cuts to discovering this relationship.” –Maria Aitken

“Style must avoid cliché: it has to be based on the creation of a world. If it's second-hand then we've failed to make the playwright's vision real. Reality is a fresh concept newly minted by a particular playwright for each particular play.” —Maria Aitken

“The first problem of high comedy slalom is to identify each change of feeling and to occupy each moment of that feeling to the hilt. The second problem is moving cleanly from one emotion to the next.” —Maria Aitken

“You have to pull the rug out from under one emotion, as it were, relinquish it totally, and supplant it with the next, almost as if it were being done to you by an outside force over which you have no control. Strong emotions seize their victims.” —Maria Aitken

“Asides are a sort of hot-line to a sympathetic listener in the audience and they are always truthful. It's as if the actor leaves the time-scheme of the scene for a moment to reveal his innermost thoughts. In filmic terms it would be like looking directly at the camera before rejoining the action.” —Maria Aitken

Among the subjects Maria Aitken covers:
What is High Comedy?
Delivery: Naturalism and Energy
Wit: Repartee and Irony
Character
SLALOM

Maria Aitken's theatre credits include leading roles at the Royal National Theatre in BLITHE SPIRIT and BEDROOM FARCE; at the Royal Shakespeare Company in TRAVESTIES; and on the West End in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, PRIVATE LIVES, DESIGN FOR LIVING, THE VORTEX, and HAYFEVER. She has played more Coward heroines than Gertrude Lawrence. Her film performances include A FISH CALLED WANDA, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA award.