Speaking as an actor who majored in theatre, I can certainly tell you that the success of any production is a combination of having good writing, good direction, and good performances (to say nothing of good sets, good lighting, good this, good that...).
And I think it's completely accurate to say that if you have bad direction, or bad acting, either or both can cause perfectly acceptable writing to sound horrid. Just imagine how stupid Aaron Sorkin's writing would sound coming out of the mouth of, say, Paris Hilton. And conversely, sometimes good acting can salvage -- or at least make acceptable -- bad writing. A prime example would be Ian McDiarmid in
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Lucas's writing is awful, but somehow McDiarmid is able to make it
work.
On the other hand, sometimes even truly wonderful actors can't save bad writing. A prime example of that is the Master's resurrection sequence in "The End of Time, Part One." Alexandra Moen ("Lucy Saxon") is an absolutely wonderful actress -- one need only look at her wonderful, understated performance in "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords" to see how she was able to take a very small, mostly background, role, yet create a complete arc for herself with evolution in every scene. But
nobody could save that awful resurrection scene -- complete with a cliched, "A-ha! But you didn't expect
this!" reversal. It was just awful.
And I say that as an RTD
fan!
(It's okay, though. I loved almost everything RTD ever did, and I can handle one truly awful scene in the course of five years.
)
