We all need a good laugh – sometimes we’d even settle for a bad laugh. Daddy jokes?
It helps us in so many ways. It softens things, takes the sting out of them.
Cheer up – it may never happen.
It already has.
Always look on the bright side.
Easier said than done when things get grim, I grant you.
Theatre has a special place for laughter. After all, it’s one of the two drama masks – the other being tragedy – but let’s not go there.
There’s something about being in an audience when the laughter is shared, and then it becomes unstoppable. Everyone is in it together.
I can still remember being taken to a play when I was about 10. I don’t remember much about the play. It was about two men stuck in beds when they were on holiday, and a strict lady came along to be their nurse.
What I do remember is that pretty soon, everything that was said brought out more and more laughter, building like waves. It got so funny that I was gasping for air. I think I was swept along by everyone else laughing. I was pulled along in this sea of hilarity.
Even then, I admired the actors for their timing, their ability to ride the laughter and bring out the next line at exactly the right moment to maximise its effect and get even more.
Sometimes laughter can release tension. You can handle more sensitive topics with a good old laugh. Shakespeare knew all about this. Some way into Macbeth, just after the king is murdered in his sleep (it happens offstage), he brings on a drunken porter who hears knocking at the gates. He wanders this way and that, making up ridiculous things about who he imagines is coming in. In a place where you would expect extreme seriousness, you get complete stupidity.
Merriment is a lovely way to build a connection between the performers and the audience, because it’s instant feedback. All actors know you can’t take an audience for granted; you have to work for it. When you get it, it feels so good – you got it right. Some audiences, for unknown reasons, don’t get it. You can perform one night to uproarious laughter and the next night it might be as quiet as the grave.
It’s a reminder that we all share this life, and life is too serious to be taken seriously.
We need to laugh, to see the absurdity in things, to remind ourselves that we are human.
