Visual Aural Spatial Elements of the play East by Steven Berkoff

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‘EAST’ by Steven Berkoff

Visual, Aural and Spatial elements

Visual:

        Conventional/Naturalistic plays are expected to be real life re-created on stage, therefore the set must resemble a real looking room, the costumes have to be real clothing of the time, there should be no artificial color scheme imposed upon a naturalistic play and the lighting has to either resemble natural light or lighting that would be used indoors. However in ‘East’, there are no expectations for colour scheme, costume, lighting etc, however what is specified by Berkoff in the stage directions, is that there is a bare stage, five chairs and a piano; the rest is up to the director to decide. Therefore as a director/designer, I am free to do whatever I choose with colour:

__________ Colour scheme: Directing East, I would use a pallet of three colours, red; white and blue. I’ve chosen these colours as they symbolise England, (St. George’s flag/Union Jack) which also symbolises patriotism, racism (pure England) etc, which are themes that are seen within East, also it highlights that the play is set in London. The three colours also create visual impact, making the play visually interesting to watch, which is important in plays that have an abstract/non-naturalistic approach.

        Set: The set would stick to the three colours hat make up the colour scheme. The stage will be bare but for five chairs placed in a line at the back of the stage, (as clearly stated in the stage directions). I would have the floor of the stage painted red, for visual effect, and also symbolising blood, mainly for the fight scenes, just to add emphasis, as there is a lot of violence between the characters Mike and Les. The five chairs would be white, so that they do not draw focus away from the characters, and because they do not serve any symbolic purpose in the play. However, the table that can be brought onstage, I would have painted blue, simply for visual effect, so that when the table and chairs are together onstage, with the floor, the 3 colours together clearly form the union jack. The back wall will be white, and the backdrop and curtains blue, again for an interesting visual effect, and to show the British flag.

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Lighting: The lighting used in conventional/naturalistic plays is made to resemble what light is like realistically, e.g. In “Abigail’s Party” the lighting resembles indoor lighting. However in East, the lighting is used creatively, just how the director wants it so it is as effective as possible.

I would use a strobe light in the silent movie scene “silent film sequence”, to create a fragmented effect, creating an old movie type image, in one lesson, we experimented with using the strobe light and found that it was visually interesting especially when making jerky movement, as it really exaggerated ...

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