The Hamlet Project

I’ll give you some understanding alright
Oh yeah.
But the boundary is the tongue
We’ll keep the tongue out of it.
It is quite remarkable to have a tongue.
This muscle, powerful, agile, sensitive
Protected only by the shallow walls of teeth
And the soft curtain of lips. It’s a kind of gateway
From the outside of the body
To the inside.
To show off one’s tongue
Is a kind of revelation of the softness inside.
It strikes me suddenly that one of my special actorly skills
Is tongue acting – directors laugh at me
Because sometimes I am at my most successful (or, at least, my funniest) on stage
When I am using my tongue.
Is it funny because I’m showing you
Something intensely private
Something from the inside
Something vulnerable?
Or is it just that a tongue out in the air looks out of place
Looks funny.