In contrast to this, our next topic was the idea of an apocalyptic nightmare of the future. For our next task we had to convey the ‘worst case scenario’ of our planets future using the explorative strategy of role play. This straight away reminded me of movies such as ‘2012’, ‘Rise of the planet apes’ and biblical predictions such as the Mayans of how our world might come to an end. My group thought of typical theories of how the world might end and decided to base our role play on the idea of planets colliding as this was a theory no one has said before. Our aim was to convey a sense of the panic and shock of civilians; we did this by having our piece consist of a series of news reports directed to the audience making them feel a part of it. Other groups decided to take this approach too as Rhiannon’s group used a series of rhetorical questions directed at the audience making us think about what is said. We also showed the reactions of civilians as the news was broken to them making the audience feel this way too. We made the performance a little non-naturalistic to express the nightmare quality of the piece. To portray tension and build anticipation we ended our piece with a countdown choosing very irregular numbers making it very unpredictable and throwing the audience off guard. As a whole, two groups conveyed destruction of society whereas the other two conveyed the literal destruction of the earth. This was interesting as it allowed us to explore the different aspects of our interpretation of the future and broadened our minds to different possibilities of our apocalyptic end. It reminded me that an apocalyptic end didn’t always mean the end of our world itself.
Following this, we were told about George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ which was based around the future of human society being constantly monitored and watched by the new form of government ‘Big Brother’. We explored the main character, Winston’s feelings towards a woman named Julia who joins his workplace but he is unable to communicate with her as this goes against ‘Big Brother’. In groups of 2 we had to convey his emotions with no speech up until Julia leaves him a note. All groups showed his hidden emotions and reactions to Julia as well as the restrictions imposed with facial expressions and subtle acknowledgements of each other as well as synchronised movements. In addition, all groups put emphasis on the moment where Julia hands Winston the note, this is an example of the explorative strategy of marking the moment. I think this moment in particular was chosen as it is a very significant moment in the play as it is their first act of rebellion together. To mark the moment all groups highlighted this moment as it was the only part where both characters were not acting in-synch. We then related George Orwell’s prediction of the future to nowadays and realised that his prediction was quite accurate.
Following this, our next subject was the idea of constantly being watched by CCTV cameras in our homes and schools. We thought about the benefits and consequences and how the general public would feel about it. We thought about our current situation on these terms and how bad it is has gone unnoticed but could soon become a lot worse. Our class was then split into two, one side was for CCTV in schools and the other was against this motion. We had to stay in character throughout the debate making some of us go against our true opinions challenging our preconceived ideas. Using the explorative strategy of an in-role debate made everyone see a whole overview on the topic and opened our minds to things that hadn’t occurred to us before. This changed some of our opinions and made us aware of what other people might have to say on the subject.
Before the debate I was strongly against the prospect of CCTV cameras in schools however, my opinion was altered to become unsure after the debate. I think this is because there was such a diverse range of characters which made us all think of everyone’s view on the subject and how a person’s job could affect their opinions. For example, Rhiannon playing a policewoman was for the motion as CCTV cameras would help police track down criminals but this opinion had nothing to do with the characters morals but more about how it would help her role in her job. An example of a character against the motion was Becky playing a psychiatrist; because of her job she focused on people’s behaviour and how CCTV in schools could change this. Furthermore, throughout the debate Ms Craggs kept it stimulated by asking questions helping us engage with our characters and made us think how they might feel, this helped us understand our character which is part of role-play. There was a lot of humour throughout this in-role discussion as it took a while for a lot of us to come to terms with what we were doing, however this made people more relaxed and made people more comfortable and at ease to speak. On the other hand, I think at times the humour distracted us from our character. By the end of the debate I was still against CCTV cameras in schools but I understood why some people wanted this to happen so badly.
We then went on to explore a book written in the 20th Century explaining the near future of our society; this was called ‘Clockwork Orange’. The book was based mainly on the prospect of gang culture and was about a boy named Alex and his gang. It described the grotesque and horrible things that they did, such as murder. We compared this to our society today and whether this was the case for us. I think that this could be the same however with the involvement of technology such as CCTV it is incredibly difficult to continuously get away with something such as that.
As our task we had to use the explorative strategy of a series of 5 freeze frames portraying the actions of Alex’s gang and the pleasure they gained out of this. I think it was effective to use this explorative strategy as it forced the performers to contain the essence of the scene in one moment. The extra medium of music composed by Beethoven was added in the background to reflect the triumph the gang felt at the time.
