But do you have the 'Presence' to carry it off.

I once auditioned to perform in a production of Hamlet. Apprehensively I make my way to this Theatre in the East End of London. Once on stage I nervously endeavour to do justice to the Bard while this theatrical icon, the Director, like a wizened, white bird slouches at me from the third row. Now he asks me to read again. “More presence”, he calls out from the stalls. I draw on every ounce of my being to be more present.

“Thank you.”

Instinctively I knew I had not got the part and I didn’t have the nous, or the knowledge to say, ‘Look, you may be the Director, but your aesthetics of presence is just another fad that seeks to transcend history; to escape temporality and besides ‘presence’ is a cancerous archipelago and man is a process not some fixed point.’

I didn’t say any of that. Instead I cursed all the way home and once there started throwing things at the wall. Some time later one of the Company’s actors told me - He (the Director)  felt I didn’t have the ‘presence’ to carry it off.