For the second part of the task, we chose to play a housewife and a male playing a doctor specialising in breast cancer. My partner played the house wife who was worried that her friends would think her husband is not receiving enough ‘action’ from her, therefore felt the need to ‘touch up’ breasts as a career. The doctor (me) insisted that he generally showed an interest in breast cancer and that this was the job for him. He also treated his wife with little respect, e.g. as soon as he walked in, he demanded for his dinner; however the wife refused to give it to him - something which would not have happened a hundred years ago. This short piece of drama was a comedy; therefore there were a lot of synonyms for the word ‘breasts’, the wife also carried on ranting about the fact that she does not excite him anymore, because he gets so much during the day.
Next, we discussed a poem. This particular poem is called ‘Saw it in the Papers’. After reading the poem, and digesting its contents, I concluded that Adrian Mitchell’s purpose was to link a real life story with an important world issue to help us put things into perspective. It uses very emotive language, the short sentences add to the emotion in the poem. Also, he repeats ‘there was no sign of mental instability’, which would be the excuse used to both not care for a baby and neglect the millions of other starving babies in the world.
He also uses ‘circles of life’ in parts of the poem:
‘When love was torn away from her
she locked her love away,
It seemed that no one cared for her.
She seemed to stop caring’.
This is an example of feeling so much love, then without warning being neglected – so she, without warning neglected everything; including her baby boy.
‘Some of us care for each other.
Some of us don’t.
Some of us are gentle.
Some of us are brutal
All kinds.’
This is another example of ‘the circle of life’ displayed later on in the poem, which can also be linked to an overall emotion of greed; although there are some that care, they can feel the emotion but not act upon it – so whether you’re brutal or gentle, the issue of world hunger is still a problem. Adrian Mitchell concludes his poem with:
Cry if you like.
Do something if you can. You can.
You may care and cry, however it does not help the situation. Do something. You can.
We were then put into groups of five and performed a Drama based on the poem. We chose to act a scene showing the mother entering the prison with a guard, two prisoners and the dead baby boy trailing behind the mother as her shadow. We chose to do this, because her real punishment is her sanity, the baby still haunts her, although she is now locked up, she will never be able to lock up the guilt as easily as she did with her love. Her mind is yet to be unlocked.
The walk towards the prisoners was purposefully extended to add to the seriousness of the situation, it also represented the insanity of the mothers mind. We thought that silence would be a good way to start the drama, the ghost glided in the same pace, holding the same expression. We aimed the lighting to be focused on the faces of both mother and child, the similarity of expression reflected the relationship of the two characters; it enabled the audience to make the connection of mother and son. The mother mimicked the same expression as her dead boy, because although one is dead and the other alive, the mother could be seen as the living dead. She should suffer the same fate as her son, however escaped it; which I personally think is worse. We ensured the mother walked at a faster pace than the child as she wants to escape from the memory; however the child walked at a slightly faster pace to show attachment, the atmosphere was eerie due to the ghost and the silence.
I played the role of the prisoner. The other prisoner and I took it in turns to say our line. We used the same tone of voice to repeat a section in the poem:
‘Some of us care for each other.
Some of us don’t.
Some of us are gentle.
Some of us are brutal
All kinds.’
Because although some may be brutal and others gentle, we are all in the same situation. We both said ‘All Kinds’ and ended the play. Our facial expressions and the indistinct silence were key devices to create the subtle atmosphere within the drama.
We then joined together with other groups so that the class was divided into two big groups. We were to perform a drama showing who was responsible for the death of the baby. As a group we discussed it and couldn’t come to an agreement to one person, so we decided to show how everyone shared part of the responsibility.
We did this by designing a row of seats in different levels. The levels were to show how much input they had, we were each given roles of characters mentioned in the play and sat in any order on the chairs. We elected two girls to be inspectors; they entered and told us to stand up. They asked us questions which reflected the blame we had – e.g. the inspector asked me (the grandmother of the dead child) if I often called my daughter to check up on her. I guiltily said no and they moved onto the next character. The inspectors sat us down in order of responsibility and exited the scene, we each had our heads down and the mother lifted hers and said ‘I’m guilty’ we all simultaneously looked up at her and the play ended. The structure of the seating resembled the diagram below:
Similarly to my previous drama, the dialogue was minimal as our expression would say more about our feelings – the dialogue mainly came from the inspectors, because they were the only ones who did not share the guilt.
It was interesting to see that the other half of the class had done something completely different; their drama was based on dialogue rather than expression. The inspector in their drama took each character in for questioning where the characters pleaded innocent, where as our characters accepted the blame.
The class was then arranged in a circle and we performed a sound scape of a prison. The sound scape would enable us to create the atmosphere a real prison would contain; this would improve our understanding of the conditions described in the poem. We each individually made a noise that would contribute to the environment of a prison; we continued the noise until we were told to stop. I chose to make a ‘shhhhhh’ sound, because it could be interpreted as the sound of the wind or silence. There were other sounds, such as a clicking noise. This could be interpreted as the clicking of an open door, or the clicking of locking handcuffs. Another sound was a constant low tone scream; this represents the ongoing unsettling sanity which the prisoners share mentally.
We then progressed the idea by creating a class letter to the baby; we would each spontaneously offer to say a line in the middle of the circle. The different ideas resulted in a very emotional letter; an individual idea would contribute to the formation of another well-thought idea. The letter enabled us to explore all aspects and feelings of the mother. I said ‘I wish we could start things over’- this sentence is usually said in a romantic relationship and it was the romantic relationship that caused her to neglect her child. She saw her partner in her baby, so I developed this by treating the baby the way she did previously. It is also a common sentence used within a relationship, it is usually said after an individual has received the consequences of their actions.
If I were writing the whole letter I would say:
Dearest Child,
I regret it. Everything.
Everything remains unexplained
I miss you –
I wish we could start things over
I will join you
I’m yours forever,
I love you
Mother
As the mother i still do not fully comprehend why I did what I did, ‘there was no evidence of mental instability’ so I have nothing to say, apart from ask for forgiveness and wish that things could have been better. I say ‘I will join you’ because as i said previously, I am the living dead, so I am already mentally half way there, I will eventually be physically all the way there.
Our final task was to perform a drama on poverty; this was the meaning behind the poem. Our group split into two and simultaneously demonstrated the wealth we have in England and in Africa, we displayed the advantages we have in England – such as a child playing on PS2 and on the other side, the disadvantages - starving children. I played an African child; the African children were on the floor to show a lower level of power, the children are gazing hopefully to the English, some are showing compassion but are not acting upon it, others are rejecting the Africans.
Another group did Forum theatre, they created a modern discussion on world issues, they also included the element of comedy because they each had their own unique personalities. It contrasted from ours, because ours was much more serious. They made the discussion fun and lively, they also included the audience.
Overall, I was pleased with my performance. I felt like I contributed to the discussions and performed well. I learnt that people can take on board an instruction and perform it in different styles using diverse techniques. I enjoyed analysing the poem and listening to different views, I also liked the way we started with gender in professions and ended with world poverty, two different important issues, however the dramas in between linked to one another. This will help me with my drama skills in the future, I will now be able to thoroughly analyse and comprehend performances.
