LAUGHING BUDDHA

body coughed and missed a really important thing, they’re not going to get the joke in, say, three lines time, so you have to find a way to get the set-up in another way. What I love about performance is the concentration you have to have because you need to be absolutely in the character, in the moment, so that when things do change you can respond authentically. It’s a heightened state of concentration. I’d go mad if I didn’t do it.”

Truth. Heightened state of concentration. This is where vipassana comes in. It’s an ancient form of meditation, which, loosely translated, means “to see things as they really are”. For Buckland, vipassana means silencing “the chit-chat” of the mind when he’s on stage. The chit-chat of the self that ate breakfast that morning, drove to the theatre and thinks about who’s in the audience. That’s one reality. The other is the reality of his existence on a stage, under lights, pretending to be another person, believing he is another person, feeling what they feel right to the very surface of their skin. Being. Actually being. Allowing himself to plummet through that atmosphere, focusing on the gauge which tells him when to pull the cord so he can float safely back to ground.

“Coming off stage at the end of the performance . . . the only way I can describe it is that it’s like a physical sensation,” Buckland says. “It’s quiet here (he places his hands on his chest). So driving home it’s just quiet, it’s like you’re in a meditation. Your thoughts are not going ka-ka-ka-ka anymore. It’s just quiet. It’s beautiful.” LS

• Blue/Orange runs at the Baxter Theatre until March 14.