‘Acting’: Edinburgh Review

Dir: Sophie Fiennes. UK. 2024. 147mins.

Combining her skills as a documentarian with those of theatre company Cheek By Jowl leads to unexpectedly moving results in Sophie Fiennes’ austere masterclass, Acting. It’s an exemplar of ‘show don’t tell’, a niche prospect of a 147-minute black-and-white exploration of Macbeth. Any mis-step and it could be a French and Saunders sketch as eight young actors probe the text under the watchful eye of Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod. But instead Acting becomes a growing testament to talent, knowledge, vulnerability and the life in the spaces – if, as Donnellan constantly asks, that makes any sense.

Describing an actor’s process is notoriously tricky; Acting instantly soars to the top of the class

Describing an actor’s process is notoriously tricky; Acting instantly soars to the top of the class. Observing as the blood is pumped into Shakespeare’s Scottish Play is a privilege awarded by Cheek By Jowl’s collaboration with Fiennes, director of 2017’s Grace Jones: Bloodlight And Bami. Together they bring the skill to the talent and it becomes a cumulative feedback loop in which sparks fly. Of course that makes the natural audience for this immersive doc self-selecting; it’s over two hours of verse, repeated, with no traditional arc. Paying homage, at least in its initial stages, to the work of Frederick Wiseman, it’s high-end niche, though, which can never be discounted. Expect Acting to have an extended shelf-life.

It’s a surprise when Donnellan declares himself to be Irish (through his parents); this veteran actor and sage of the stage initially comes across as quite the fruity British thesp from central casting. He formed Cheek By Jowl with his partner Omerod back in 1981 and he is the author of the acting handbook ’The Actor And The Target’. Fiennes withholds this information from the viewer throughout, however, opting to set her camera in the grounds of the dilapidated Twyford Mansion in London for some ominous monochrome establishing shots of what will become a sort-of Inverness Castle. Inside, eight young actors – four Lord and four Lady Macbeths – start exercises for Donnellan by touching the walls and exploring the spaces.

We do know that these sessions will not lead to a production: Donnellan and Ormerod are here to teach. The actors are keen to learn. And Fiennes, a skilled navigator of space and pace herself, has the sensibility to know exactly when vital moments are being reached and hold the scene. Donnellan leads, probes, questions, pushes, drilling into the fundamental skills of the craft. The arch-tragedy of Macbeth is a fertile ground: the intensity and the extremity of it all and the opportunities for questioning. It’s also one of the Bard’s more easily accessible works, and that helps in a film which is so stubbornly singular.

For a documentary that is, for much of its running time, on repeat mode as several Macbeths and Lady Macbeths attack iconic scenes – is this a dagger, or out damned spot, etc – it’s unexpectedly exciting. The actors are all talented, but Donnellan nudges some of them towards greatness. The sense of simmering potential responding to an opportunity results in the shadows of these rundown walls becoming more and more like a looming date with the Macbeths’ destiny. The more we see of Donnellan, the easier it is to appreciate his humanity and gifts. He may be a great questioner of life, but he can also be funny and caustic. (If you’re working with someone who starts talking about their truth, he warns, run away as fast as you can.)

The young actors (all listed below) bravely allow themselves to be vulnerable to Fiennes’ observational camera. Hopefully they will think it was worth it. Her last film was of her brother Ralph performing TS Elliot’s Four Quartets. She knows acting: in as much as Donnellan and the actors bring to her camera, she’s ready and waiting too. Her edit is, admittedly, too long in total, but hyper-attuned to the beats being played out. Moving from stark careful compositions to extreme one-woman DOP fluidity means Acting is a Wiseman-like careful construction.

To wider audiences, Fiennes will always be thought of as the woman who went lens to nose with Grace Jones and won a film. But Acting is something very special too. There’s a vaulting ambition to what it’s trying to do, in every part of the room - and those spaces in between.