I personally think that our performance went really well,
because we had a really strong, political message to give to the audience, also
I thought that we had used Brechtian style of acting really well and that it
created a strong performance.
One of the things that I thought we did really well was how
we used Verfremdungseffekt or making things strange. We did this through the
use of narration in Blondie’s acceptance speech. For example, “she licked her
lips and swallowed,” was said and Blondie did that action. This was effective
because it broke the forth wall between the audience and the action that was
happening on stage, so that the audience was clear that the what was happening
onstage wasn’t meant to be real or for the actors to be in another world to
them, but that they are in fact in a theatre. Also because saying the stage
directions was so unnatural for both the audience to hear and for the actors to
be a part of, it alienated them both, making sure that the audience don’t
connect to the characters on stage because they were constantly being pulled
back into reality. I think that it was really important to have narration in
the Blondie speech, as it is a very long speech, and the audience could quite
easily get pulled into listening to it, as political speeches are something
that they hear a lot, so it could be something that they relate to and connect
with, this is why I think it was crucial that we had some narration put into
the speech, so that the audience could be alienated, out of the speech and back
into realising that they were in a theatre. Making sure that our audience was
alienated and not connecting to the characters or to the emotional side to the
story was essential to our performance as Brecht thought that audiences should
go to the theatre to get a message, to change their own way of thinking, so by
not letting the audience connect to the characters, we were making sure that
their focus was on the political message of our piece at all times and that
they were being made to think and to even learn form our performance.
Blondie’s political speech was not the only place that we
used narration, in some of the people in power scenes, such as the Thatcher
scene, there was the use of narration as well. This was to also alienate the
audience, form connecting with the character and to make sure that they
understood what was being said politically not emotionally with the characters.
However the main form of narration that we used throughout our performance was
singing narration. This is where part of the story is told through the use of
song and by changing originally lyric’s of a song to fit into our performance.
A lot of the people in power scenes had songs in them, for example in the Bin
Laden scene the American national anthem was changed to fit in. Also we had to
full songs in our performance; Call Me by Blondie, changed to Vote me, and Hot
Stepper. I though that these were used really well and added a lot to our
performance, because they were funny, which Brecht always thought that theatre
had to be humorous otherwise there wasn’t any point going to the theatre. Also
by having humorous songs it helped to alienate the audience, as the Blondie
scenes were serious and it could have been easier for the audience to become
involved in those scenes emotionally, so by having the songs and the dancing
that was funny to watch, made the audience remember that what they were
watching was a piece of theatre. It alienates them on another level as well,
because they are going through a mixture of emotions, one moment its intense,
the next it is really funny, this would be hard to deal with, so it is easier
for the audience to turn out of the piece emotionally and watch it on another
level, just concerning the message.
We also used labels and a wig to show the characters and who
was playing them. Throughout our performance we had more that one person
playing the majority of the characters, so it was crucial to have something
that shows the audience who was playing who at what point so as not to confuse
them. Also the simplicity of the costumes showed to the audience that the
characters themselves are not as important as the message and the issues that
are being raised in the piece, it showed them that the characters aren’t real people;
they are representations of groups of people or of ideas. Also by having the
change over’s of the actors playing the same characters being shown to the
audience reminds them that they are in a theatre, watching a performance, which
is really important because Brecht didn’t think that the performances should be
realistic and he showed all of the changes to the audience so that they didn’t
think that what they was watching was so far away from them and that the issues
being raised weren’t in another world to them but effected them as well. Also
it was important in our piece that we had more than one person playing a
character because it stopped the audience and us as actors from connecting to
the characters. For the audience, it stops them connecting to the character, as
they as soon as they are used to one person playing the character, e.g.
Blondie, then another person takes over and plays them, maybe they play them
differently or even if the actors play the character similarly, it still
alienates the audience as they have to readjust and get used to that actor and
it becomes clear to them that the character is just a representation and not
someone that you should get in depth with. For the actors, it is useful to play
more than one character because in Brechtian theatre as an actor you are not
supposed to connect with the character, so by having to change from one
character into another you don’t have enough time to get into the emotional
state of that character, so you can play them as representations as the
audiences are supposed see them as.
In our piece we also used exaggeration to play our
characters and like Brecht we used stereotypes to make our characters. For
example Blondie was made overly sexual and everything she said could be
interpreted into something sexual, this was done to show the audience just why
she was voted in and how she represents why people might vote people into
parliament. Also in the people in power scenes the characters such as Thatcher
and Bin Laden, were based on the stereotypes of them and were then exaggerated.
We did this because to get into the mindset of people like Bin Laden would have
been really difficult and could have then been difficult to get out of quickly
to become another character. Also it makes the audience know not to connect to
them and that they aren’t supposed to be that real person just a comic
representation of them. It also helps the actors not to connect to them because
they are so exaggerated that they become characterisers and there is nothing
relatable about them.
The thing that I thought was most effective thing about our
piece of theatre was that throughout our performance it was funny and that the
audience were really enjoying the exaggeration and the songs and were laughing
all the way through. But then at the end it got really serious and the audience
were hit hard with the message and that they really took that away with them
and were made to think.
However I think there are aspects of our performance that we
could have improved on to make our piece even better. One of the things I think
that we could have worked on to make it better, is the exaggeration of some of
the characters. For example in the people in power scenes the people who the
scenes were about, like Thatcher, were really exaggerated and huge character. I
think that if we were to make all of the characters in those scenes at the same
level of the main characters in those scenes, it would have made them more
humorous to watch and it would have brought the energy levels up. Also if we
had made them larger and exaggerated them more, the audience may not have
connected with them as much as they may have done, this would enable them to
know that we are just representing what happened and that the characters aren’t
necessarily real or actually like what we showed them as, that we are just
using stereotypes.
We then watched the other two classes that were also looking
at Brecht and performing a political piece of theatre. I thought that both
pieces were really good and performed really well, because they attacked some
serious issues in there pieces and at the same time they used the Brechtian
techniques in there performances as well.
One of the things I liked most about Will’s group is the use
of gestus in their performance. This was demonstrated perfectly when they broke
down one of their scenes and part of the ensemble formed a line behind one of
the actors and while the actor was talking, in turn each of the people in the
line copied that action and held it. This was really effective, because it
showed how important gestures can be and it highlighted how much the gestures
were saying to the audience and to the other actor, as they communicated the
anger. Gestus was also used in Sarah’s group with the actors who were playing
the check out girls; they were all doing the same repeated action, passing on
things through the checkout. However they were all doing it with the same
attitude, by putting this attitude onto the action that they were doing, told
the audience a lot about them, this said to us that they were bored and
unsatisfied with their jobs and that they didn’t really care much about the
customers.
In Sarah’s group, like ours, they also used singing
narration to tell the story, however unlike ours they weren’t ensemble songs,
where all the cast sang the songs. In their piece they had the different groups
of characters singing the songs, for example they had all the check out girls
singing one song, then all the babies singing another song. I thought that this
was really good and that they used it really well, as the subject of their
piece was really serious, they were buying a dead baby, but then with the
singing put in, really alienated the audience. I can say that personally I felt
alienated because I found myself laughing along to the songs because they and
the characters were all so exaggerated, and then I realised that I laughing at
a really serious subject, and it made me focus on the message of the piece, not
connecting to the characters. I thought that the exaggeration of the
characters, like the check out girls, was really effective, as they based it on
stereotypes of what society see these people as. This makes them less relatable
because they were so exaggerated that they weren’t down to earth, naturalistic
characters and consequently I saw them as representations.
Will’s group also did a type of narration, where two
characters are arguing really crazily, and then one of them stepped out to talk
directly to the audience and giving us some background. This completely broke
the forth wall between the audience and the actors, it brought us out of the
argument and from connecting with either side of it or either character. It
brought us back to the reality that we are watching a performance and that what
we were seeing wasn’t real. This was reinforced when the ensemble spoke out
loud the punctuation and the stage directions; this alienated the audience as
well, as we were brought out of the world of the play and brought back into
reality.
