The message of the piece was reminiscence, it came over as all the emotions both family and soldiers went through before, during and after the war.
The performance was overall very good and I would only make some minor changes to improve the piece. In certain scenes they needed to project their voices as sometimes the music was louder than they were, for example, when each person moved in sequence towards the dead body from the marching scene, I think the words needed to be heard because of their strong meaning. Another part of the piece that could’ve been improved on was facial expressions. They tended to put all the emotion into their voices and not in their faces. For example, when each person moved in sequence and was saying the strong words they all could’ve, to make it more believable, use facial expression to relate to their words.
The piece kept my attention throughout, they included freeze frames and non-naturalistic scenes of the duration of the piece. There was one particular freeze frame in their performance that was very powerful. There were three separate freeze frames. In the centre of the stage there was two people forming a strong barrier. On the left there was one person on their own reaching out and shielding his face, the opposite side was different levels, crying into hands, shielding faces and hunched over, showing a rush of emotions. This was not only showing emotions from soldiers but also from family. In this freeze frame it depends on where you’re sitting to interpret a different meaning. This is one of five scenes that stood out to me.
One scene that also stood out for me was the second scene. They were sat in a triangular shape in the centre of the stage, a scatter of levels all forming different freeze frames, in sequence with a line from the play. This was strong to me because they didn’t go out of character, they were all in time with the music and they made contact with the audience which then made us involved. Another scene that caught my eye was the marching scene, the music in the background went with what they were doing, all their faces concentrated and they came across as a strong line of soldiers, they in turn said a word. It had got the last soldier and she went forward and repeated the same words two times, this created an atmosphere which then lead to a final scream which ended the scene on a high because it was unexpected. I especially liked this because they started the scene off with strong soldiers and nearer to then end of the scene it shows their emotions. This shows how time had changed from being so strong and confident at the beginning of the war, to breaking down nearer to the end of the war. I found this very interesting and could see a lot off effort had gone into this part, to make a simple scene mean so much.
Their performance included a lot of non-naturalistic physical theatre, in most of the scenes they included slow motion, repeat, tone, and levels. They included slow motion in one scene at the end, in the little girls voice whilst walking around the dead bodies, this kept my attention because it was mystical and the tone of her voice was quite scary. The way the group interpreted the physical theatre into their piece was good; they added things in at the right moments, though some could’ve been improved on as I’ve said before. I found this also kept my attention.
In their performance they used the whole space they had. Most of the time there was two scenes going on at once so was useful to the amount of space that was given, otherwise they set out there scenes in the middle of the stage.
I think this group didn’t start off as a team, but when they started to work together and put the effort in, you could see teamwork developing. Most of the performance the actors stayed in focus, however in the triangular scene when they made eye-contact with the audience, they tended to lose focus.
One character that I pacifically liked was Jasmine, she is my friend and I know how hard she works to try and make a good presentation. She stayed in character most of the time, sometimes when she looked into the audience she tended to lose focus, though I might have some blame for that. The scene I enjoyed most and the scene I think she was best in was the last scene, she was the little girl; she made me feel connected somehow with the way she sang in a scary voice.
If more time was added to the piece and they were able to add lighting, I would add it in, in the first scene. When they are fighting in slow motion the white light should surround them, but when they in sequence say a word the red light should spotlight on that one person. After that one person has said their words and formed a strong army position, the blue light should spotlight on them.
The music chosen for this piece was used well, it wasn’t quiet and it wasn’t loud, but sometimes the volume was louder than the actors were and I was unable to hear what the characters were saying. I think the best way they used the music was the marching scene. The way they included this in the scene worked well, when the characters marched, the music in the background went along with it, which I thought was very well thought out and added to the atmosphere.
In conclusion they worked well together to produce a good physical theatre piece, the way they added things in kept my attention throughout, which was the overall aim.
