(MEDEA) LANGUAGE:
I performed a monologue as Jason. Jason’s language suggests he is a very pragmatic business-like person who speaks in a rather logical way. “Unchivalrous to suggest that it was simply love.” I can tell that he is very masculine and rather a coward too but is not as smart as Medea which contrasts with how Medea is portrayed. He is also shown as a hero and a social climber as he only wants the princess because she is royalty. Euripides uses language as a vehicle to voice his ideas about behaviour of men in the society, that they are naturally more physically dominant and emotionally stable than women. He is also very controversial; usually arguing with Medea and disagreeing with her. “You women, you’re all the same.”
(MEDEA) NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:
During my performance of Jason’s monologue, I positioned myself centre stage to convey the idea of Jason being heroic and this is a key moment of the play. I made direct eye contact with Medea and locked it so that I can be intimidating and brave. In addition, my eye contact was looking slightly down, to give the impression that I was twice as big as Medea. I made a serious ‘poker-face’ facial expression throughout the monologue to show my seriousness, masculinity and confidence. My style was naturalistic and showed how I thought Jason’s body language was like.
(MEDEA) VOICE:
In my monologue, I started by speaking in a heroic and masculine way. I did this by focusing my vocal projection on my chest. I then slowed down the pace of my voice and raised the volume to make my voice more arrogant and provocative to Medea. I also spoke with a low pitch to project the added masculinity of Jason. To create vocal diversity I explored the 7 Vocal P’s (pace, pitch, power, pressure, projection, placement and pause). “You women, you’re fixated. You’ve convinced yourselves that if you’re happy in bed, everything is okay.”
(MEDEA) INTERPRETATION:
I saw an interpretation of Medea that was performed by the Splendid Theatre Company at our school that was designed to appeal to a modern audience and because of their production style it made the genre much more accessible. They used Brechtian devices to develop the darker elements of the play and this was effective as it made the audience more aware of the action. There were only three performers and they used different coloured scarves in different ways of wearing it to differentiate between themselves. They delivered the historical context of the play through a comic and repeated chant, which broke up the emotion and tension of the monologues performed by Medea but also allowed the audience to see her humanity and the tragedy of events when shown against the comedic moments.
(TWO) CONTEXT:
Two, written by Jim Cartwright, was first performed at the Bolton Octagon in 1989 and was thought to be witty, entertaining and thought provoking. It was written for two actors who play all fourteen parts. The play presents a microcosm of working-class life in a Northern local pub in the 80’s, which is portrayed in the play as a place of failed aspirations and unfulfilled lives. It features key themes of loss, loneliness and abuse within relationships. Its main characters, the Landlord and the Landlady, mingle with a variety of characters each affected by another specific character, whether we witness both or not. At extremes with each other; he’s the hands on money-in-till manager, and she is the gossipy heart of the bar. Their facade ultimately cracks when a small young boy in search of his missing dad appears and they are forced to remember and face the terrible loss of their child years before. Cartwright gives a voice to the ordinary and marginalised people of the North in the 80’s in this humorous yet thought provoking play. “It’s a stag party. Man the pumps, pull out the stops, raise the prices, come on let’s polish them off. You take the spirits, I’ll take the beers.” In my research of the northern-southern 1980s divide, I found out that there were big differences between the two regions. The North had been getting poorer and poorer during the 1980s, especially due to the closure of mines by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to reduce costs. This caused much unemployment and poverty in the North. However, the South was becoming richer and more prosperous under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This is shown in the play by how the characters have failed aspirations and are just sitting around, being bored. For example, Fred and Alison are fat, bored and unprivileged, but at least they have each other’s intimacy. Another example would be how Roy shows anger at a random young man in the pub for wearing jeans. In addition, there is a very noticeable variation in accent and dialect between the North and South.
(TWO) VISUAL/AURAL/SPATIAL:
If I were staging a production of Two, it would be set in a classic English pub, which would be the main focus for the audience. Brown would be the key colour, because it represents beer, Guinness, ale, wood, furniture and most traditional English pubs. I would use amber gel, in a wash lighting state to create a warm atmosphere. There would be a profile spot light, so that it can pick out where you want to audience to look at. For example, in the scene of the old man, the profile spot light would focus just on him. I would also use haze to create a ‘smoking feel’ to the pub, since most people smoked in pubs during the 80’s before it was banned. I would have general pub chatter sound in the background and the occasional Led Zeppelin songs. This would suit Fred and Alice’s preference. All characters would have strong Manchester accents, except for Moth having a Liverpool accent. The set consists of a pub bar, with all glasses, pumps, till, optics etc., being mimed, as are the other people in the pub to whom the actors relate. Costumes in the play should be minimal. The Landlord and old man would have black trousers and a white shirt, Landlady and the old woman would be wearing old gowns, Moth would be wearing a leather jacket, Maudie and Mrs Iger would have a handbag over their shoulders, Mr Iger would have a hat, Lesley would be wearing a scarf to cover her injuries, Roy would be wearing a hoody, Fred, Alice and the woman would be wearing tracksuits and the boy would be wearing a northern football top. Beer would be spilt on the carpet under the audience’s chairs shortly before the play to create the smell of an actual pub.
(TWO) PRACTITIONER:
The play was originally performed by two characters playing all fourteen characters in the story. This is known as Multi role-ing, which was developed by Brecht. When I performed Mr Iger, I thought about proxemics and how he would be positioned in the scene, and decided that I should be hidden behind a bar counter with only my hat being visible and my hands fiddling about on the bar counter. This would show how short and jittery Mr Iger is.
(TWO) LANGUAGE:
In the play Jim Cartwright uses language to contrast different characters. For example, with Mr and Mrs Iger, he creates tension by making one character more vulnerable and soft and another more powerful. Mr Iger is represented as the weak one who tries to please Mrs Iger. “I’ll have a another try shall I, dear?”. Mr Iger often pretends to be the man, the kind that Mrs Iger fancies and dreams about. Also, his speech is quite intensive, jittery and disjointed when he tries to get through the crowd to get some drinks, there is a clear use of fragmental speech “Scuse...sorry…Ow...Are you in the queue?...Oh...Sorry…” From that passage we get that this person has a few complexes and conflicts inside himself. He is clearly shows as a weak, nervous, jittery, insecure and beta male.
(TWO) CHARACTER:
The character I performed was Moth, a young unemployed man from Liverpool who is in a relationship with Maudie. His language suggests that he is seductive, persuasive, relaxed, self-aware, confident and often tries to seduce other girls but fails using cliche pickup lines like “What’s a beautiful girl like you doing in a place like this?” Maudie is deeply in love with him and often uses her money as a way to keep him around. We used proxemics to communicate their relationship. We placed our chairs close together at centre stage, which would be in the middle of the pub, to show our open and extroverted characteristics and that we want to be in the centre of attention. My chair was slightly facing away from Maudie’s to show the fact that I’m more interested in looking at other girls, while Maudie’s chair is facing mine to show that she is deeply interested in me. When I had to get up and go to the bar, I strolled in a slow, relaxed and seductive zigzag motion to get as much attention and interaction with the audience as possible, showing how Moth is an extrovert and tries to pick up girls. There was also much intimate physical contact such as hugging, leaning and pulling arms between Maudie and I to show that we’re in a relationship. Most of the physical contact was initiated by Maudie, because she’s obviously the one more in love and demands Moth’s attention and affection.
In another workshop I looked closely at Mr. Iger, a small, nervous, repetitive and submissive man who is married to abusive, dominant, big, bossy Mrs. Iger. His main function in the play is to highlight the theme of abuse within relationships, which has always been common in human history. In addition, Mr Iger’s character is presented in the play with fragmented speeches. To perform Mr Iger, I came up with a unique idea of bending my whole body down and only showing my hat behind the bar table, with my hands fiddling about with the drinks on the table. To the audience this showed his obvious short body size and his jittery, desperate movements in trying to get drinks from the bar. I thought that this would be a better idea than showing my whole body. The use of the hat shows how short Mr Iger is.
(TWO) NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:
During my performance of the character Moth, I made eye contact with female members of the audience throughout the whole scene to highlight Moth’s interest in other girls. However, whenever Maudie revealed her purse, I would lock my eye contact on her purse. My main concentration was either on the other girls in the bar or Maudie’s purse. My body language was very slow, confident, relaxed and had a swagger to it, to show how Moth is trying to look impressive for the girls. Also, my facial expressions showed a smirky smile, a calm gaze and direct eye contact to highlight the fact that Moth is trying to impress and seduce other girls.
(TWO) VOICE:
There is a very noticeable variation in accent and dialect between the North and South. People from the South tend to speak clearly and ‘posh’, while people from the North have strong accents and often slur the words. This is obviously shown in the play by how the characters have Northern accents, vocabulary and slang. Both Maudie and I used were the only characters in Two who used Liverpool accents. This is because Moth is originally from Liverpool.
My tone of voice was persuasive, which was mainly aimed at Maudie to persuade her to hand over her purse. I used a seductively slow pace of vocal delivery to help attract female attention and attraction. It also showed his confidence and relaxed nature.
(TWO) INTERPRETATION:
In my performance of the character Moth, I wore a black leather jacket with sleeves rolled up, which is a sign of coolness and confidence. I also wore dark blue jeans to show that I’m young and in touch with modern fashion. I also wore a pair of black gloves to show that I’m self-aware and trying to look unique compared to all the other people in the pub. Before my final performance of Moth and Maudie with Mina Hambro (my partner), we worked on some improvisations and rehearsal methods involving both sub-text and off-text. In one workshop, Mina and I had to improvise the scene before Moth and Maudie went to the pub. We decided to place the scene in Maudie’s flat. Maudie is very keen on Moth to sleep over at her flat, but Moth persuades Maudie that they should go to the pub instead to “meet people.” The conversation between them in the improvisation is very similar to the actual pub scene in the way that Maudie thinks she has more control over the relationship, but Moth is the one subtly controlling it with his persuasive and seductive techniques that Maudie easily falls for. Also, the fact that it is in Maudie’s flat shows that Maudie is employed and can be independent, while Moth is unemployed and financially dependant on Maudie. The only thing keeping Maudie attached to Moth is her love and affection for him. This was our interpretation of their relationship.
(MEDEA+TWO CONCLUSION)
Although both plays are different, both have elements of social criticism that opened my perceptions of how society functions and the social problems within it.
