The set to me looked as though it had been set up in an abstract way. There were no clear markings showing which part was which so the audience was invited to make up their own minds. Some parts of the set became clear very quickly e.g. Impy and Mclean’s home. But one thing I noticed was the way that everything on the set was made frosty and unwelcoming, even the corner that was meant to be the home of two of the characters. There were steel walls boxing in the small room representing Impy and Mclean’s home which gave it a claustrophobic feel. There was a small table in the room and also a big, pink sofa chair, probably the warmest thing on the whole set. There was also a small television in the corner of the room. This was an important part of the set as every so often, it would spurt commercials, advertising the Meebus Corporation. This didn’t happen so often it became overpowering, it just happened enough to remind the people that they were Meebus Property. This, I felt, added to the claustrophobic feeling, a feeling that even though they were in their own homes, they could not escape the tight grasp that the Meebs had on the people of the east.
Other parts of the set included a small grassy area, centre front of the stage. This area symbolised the ‘outdoors’ and was used a great deal during the course of the play. I did not fail to notice that this area too was boxed in by orange tape, similar to that used by the police. Small details like this impressed me as it showed that the set had been carefully thought through.
The final main part of the set was a tall scaffolded tower at the back of the stage. This was used only by the Meebs throughout the whole play. It incorporated the feeling of class and status into the play with ease and also did the practical job of adding another level to the stage so people would be able to see better. This was also a main feature at the end of the play as for the first time characters other than the Meebs are on that platform, symbolising that some sort of change has taken place for these characters to feel bold enough to hoist themselves up to the same level as the Meebs.
There were four main characters in this play, one of which was called Mclean. He was a middle-aged, widower and was also a father to another crucial character, Impy. Mclean and Impy lived together in the home that I described earlier. The first impressions you get of Mclean are those of a man who is tiered of leading the life he does. He seemed to me to be a man who had either forgotten, or was afraid to have fun or relax. He had a constant frown on his face and his behaviour had obvious effects on his son.
Impy was a typical teenage boy, except he had it a lot harder than most teenage boys do. His mother was dead and he was living under the control of the Meebs who he had grown to hate. Impy was very much like his dad except he wanted to do something active against the Meebs instead of just talking about how fed up he was being under the Meebus Corporation’s control. I felt that Impy had a lot of pent-up anger inside him which had accumulated from all the things that had happened to him and also from being around his father a lot. I think it was this anger that fuelled some of the things he did during the play.
Another main character was Carla, who was introduced to us at the beginning of the play. She was shown being thrown to the ground and having her bag searched as she was entering the ‘east’ side. We later found out that had come from the ‘west’ side after the death of her daughter. Carla seemed to be a strong and composed character and very rarely let the loss of her daughter get to her. She showed she was determined, as many who were greeted as rudely as she was by Mclean would have given up with him, whereas she continued trying to get though to him and help him get over whatever was troubling him. This showed she was caring and as her relationship with Mclean developed, so did the audiences fondness of them both as we watched them confront their fears and be happy together.
Another character from the ‘west’, Esther was a fellow youth which immediately connected her to Impy. She was also the same age as the majority of the audience so she connected with some of us. She appeared to be a shy, vulnerable, suspicious girl but was brave too, as she made her way from the ‘west’ to the ‘east’ by herself which must have taken a lot of courage. It was interesting watching her interact with Impy as they were both from such different backgrounds, Esther, from an upper class background in the ‘west’ and Impy from the Meeb Controlled ‘east’. Despite these differences, they both had the urge to break free from their world and their dads especially. I think this is what brought them together and helped them to understand each other.
These four main characters, along with the silver jumpsuit wearing Meebus Corporation were all that existed in the play but still, it felt so full. Never were their points in the play where the stage felt wasted or empty.
The society created by the set, the atmosphere and the characters was one of tense hostility. There was no community spirit and everyone was paranoid and suspicious of everyone else. Everyone was scared. This was not surprising, taking into account the way that the place in which they lived was being run. The Meebs were hardly even human. From a very young age, people being brought up in that society would be brainwashed into thinking like the Meebs and there would be less and less people like Impy who were willing to fight for their freedom and rights as a human being.
There were a few ways in which the world of the play and the world that I live in are similar, one of them being the rivalry between the east and the west. The views that Mclean had of the west are similar to the views that people living in the east end of London might have of the people living in west London. This also works the other way with some people in the west of both worlds thinking they are higher in importance than the people in the east.
This is how I can link the two worlds together and seeing as the play is set in the future, perhaps this is what the writer can see happening. I think the writer is writing about a world where the divisions between the east and the west have grown hideously out of control and are widening every minute. Maybe this play is a wake up call to what might happen in years to come in the real world if nothing is done to bring the invisible line between east and west together until the line no longer remains.
During the course of this play, no indications are made that the play is taking place in any particular country or place. I think that is done on purpose as the play does not want to restrict itself to one place as that might take away its edge. If I had to set it in a country/place I would probably choose London as that is where I live and I have first hand experience of the kind of rivalry that can go on between two sides of the same city.
This play is similar to many different times in history and things going on in the modern day. The obvious historical figure that is similar to the Meebus Corporation is Adolf Hitler. The way he dictated and brainwashed people into believing what he was doing was right reminds me a great deal of the way the Meebs would advertise their way of life almost as if it was an honour and a privilege to be ruled by them 24/7. They were full of lies and deceit and it was almost as if they were robots with no conscience telling them that tricking and then trapping innocent people into their way of life was wrong, and people deserved to have a choice.
The problems between Palestine and Israel in the world today also reminded me of the ‘east’ and the ‘west’ in the play’s world. The way that people who lived in the ‘east’ had a curfew and had to be inside their homes by a certain time reminded me of the people of Palestine who have curfews and must feel trapped and helpless, under the rule of a force almost at strong as the Meebus Corporation.
There were no real cultural influences in the play and there was definitely no religion. I think having religion in this play would have taken away from the main point of it. I think one of the first things the Meebs would have tried to get rid of would have been religion as this would cause problems straight away. In a way, I think having no religion gave the Meebus Corporation even higher status as according to the people; there was no God or divine force. Just the Meebs. I think this gave the Meebs a chance to play God and mould the people into exactly what they want them to be, which is quite a scary thought.
Another thing I noticed was that all the actors were different races. I think this was done for the same reason that it wasn’t set in one particular place. To make the audience feel that no-one was safe from this world and that it could happen to anyone, anywhere at any time. Also it brought all the different races onto the same level. There was no talk of colour or culture. They were just people, the same as all the people around them. I also think this was the reason that the Meebs costumes covered so much of their bodies. All you could see were their eyes so again, they were stripped of their colour and culture and just became the cold-hearted robots that were the Meebus Corporation.
My impressions of the play stayed more or less the same throughout it. It caught my attention from the moment I walked into the theatre hall and didn’t let me go until the play was finished and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Doing this essay has forced me to think about the play I watched in even more depth and detail and now I feel I fully understand the message it was trying to portray, although I think everyone who watched it would have a different idea of what it was meant to be portraying.
I would definitely recommend this play to my friends and family as I thought it was interesting and something refreshing and different to anything I had ever seen before. I would also recommend all the world’s leading politicians sit and watch it together because I think the writer of this play has put together an interesting viewpoint on what s/he believes might happen in the future and I think we need to be ready to tackle the Meebus bug if it ever comes our way.
