DRAMA COURSEWORK
POLLY BIRTWISTLE 11C 19/11/02
This year we have been studying a play by John Marston called 'the Malcontent'. In the play Malevole is the banished Duke of Genoa who returns in disguise to his former court. The Duke contrives, under the guise of a mad frame of mind, to speak the bitterest of home truths deriding aristocratic behaviour. Through intrigue and betrayal throughout the court, he eventually manages to regain his position as rightful ruler of Genoa, and his deposer and his cohorts are brought to justice.
For the past two weeks we have been having drama workshops and investigating the possible explorative strategies that could be used within the play. We have focused on four scenes in the play and used a different explorative strategy for each scene to explore it in more depth.
The first scene we studied was Act four Scene five. In this scene Malevole reveals himself as the banished duke Altofront. We used marking the moment in this scene, which is when the most significant point from the scene is chosen and everybody freezes, when the right effect has been created the cast start acting again until the end of the scene.