Exploration of a Stimulus: 'At 3am' The Response Phase.

Authors Avatar

Thomas Hayden

Exploration of a Stimulus:

At 3am

The Response Phase

The poem ‘At 3AM’ is about a couple who have had an argument earlier in the evening; the husband said something about his boss, and his boss heard the remark - whilst the wife has been feeling that the husband never talks to her anymore. The poem explains the tension and the relationship between the two characters, charting the events that happen.

During our time studying this poem we also used another poem about the life of a girl from when she went to a party, the apparent rape she suffered and the consequential pregnancy, to her regrets she now has. We used this play to devise a short that showed either the whole poem or one stanza, my group performed this with one girl playing the lead; she sat on a chair and acted out each part of poem (being happy at a party, being ignored and being pregnant), whilst the other players in the group reacted to her current state in turn. During the time she was in each state, we walked by her and reacted in a suitable way - first the boy who made her pregnant, then a tramp who looks down on her (played by myself), then her father who approaches her and reacts in a way he sees fit (angry but loving at the same time). This was related to our response to ‘At 3AM.’

As we studied ‘At 3AM’ we devised the story on which the poem is based. The first technique we used was ‘thought tracking’, this involved us getting into a group of four - two people mimed the characters of the husband and wife, while the other two players said the thoughts of either the husband or wife. This exercise helped us understand the importance of body language and facial expressions and how we should work on our character, as well as our lines.

Join now!

In groups of two we devised a short on this where it was the next day, and the wife was driving the husband to work. A child came across the road and the car just missed him - it was assumed the child was a boy, although this was never specified. Then we were told to react in a way we thought our character might. Most of the ‘wives’ acted very shocked and then responded in a suitable way to how the husband first reacted. There was an even split, I think, between the husband that was aggressive in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay