Our first play was Medea. Medea was produced in 431 BC and is the 2nd earliest play along with the lost plays Philoctetes, Dictys and Therista. The general story line for Medea is as follows. Medea's husband Jason has left her and their two young sons in order to marry the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Creon threatens to exile Medeia and her children, but Medea persuades him to allow her to stay for one day. After an argument with Jason, Medea encounters Aegeus, king of Athens, who agrees to give her sanctuary, unaware of her plans to exact a terrible revenge before fleeing. Pretending to have changed her mind, Medea persuades Jason to let the children carry gifts to his new bride, but the gifts are poisoned. After the children return, a messenger comes and tells of the death of Creon and his daughter. Medea, after a final struggle with her conscience, goes into the house to kill her children, in order to cause Jason maximum hurt. Jason appears, learns of the children's death, and rails against Medea as she escapes in a chariot loaned to her by her grandfather. I played a very small part in Medea. I entered just after the Chorus had finished the speech where she trying to convince Medea not to kill the Kings daughter. When I acted this out as Jason I tried to make my part look as if he didn’t want to be there and as if he felt uncomfortable talking to his ex-wife.
We decided to do a performance of dance drama to tell the audience that justice can be interpreted in many ways. We decided not to have any music on and to just repeat over and over again “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. I sat on the stage and acted as if I was having a nightmare with evil spirits slowly approaching me from all directions. Three other people in the group performed this with masks. I was supposed to represent the type of person who speaks out of the crowd and can make a big difference.
This story looks at the British prejudice towards the Germans during the war, and how such evil was encouraged by war propaganda. The darkness out there is a play that was written by Penelope Lively. In the story there is an old lady called Mrs Rutter who lives alone in the countryside next to a big wood where it is thought that a plane came down in the Second World War. There are two children who live in the nearby village who are called Kerry and Sandra, these two children help out at Mrs Rutter’s house. Looking after her garden and washing up. One day they are shocked to hear that when the plane came down during the war she left the pilot of the plain to die. The character of Mrs Rutter uses affectionate language and kind gestures. An example of this is when she offers her visitors a ‘chocky’, as she always ‘keeps a few choices for visitors’ and she calls them ‘Ducks’. All these actions are those of a kind person, so the audience begins to like Mrs. Rutter. When the crash is brought up we begin to tense up and feel anxious. The audience would get worried when it is described by Sandra as ‘nasty and creepy’. The fact that we never get the full story out of Mrs Rutter shows that with this combination of fear and calmness, we are constantly on edge. The images of sweet old Mrs Rutter contrasts with those of the plane crash is suggesting that we must be prepared for what happens next.
When later the audience hears of how she left the injured German pilot to die we are shocked at how someone who we thought of as 'nice' had such evil in them. The way Mrs. Rutter tells the story she is literally saying that the entire German people are guilty for the murder of her husband in the war. In the end, the audience sees how Sandra has an insight to why Mrs. Rutter felt she had nothing to be sorry for, in acting this way. In this Play we chose the opening scene to start off. We changed the story so instead of Mrs Rutter loosing her husband she lost her brother and we also added a new character to be Mrs Rutter’s sister. We did this because the there could be a easier link to their past, and because we wanted a play where we could all act in. We thought it would be good if Kerry said the last line just after Mrs Rutter had told them that they were going to leave him there, the line was “What kind of justice is that?” which we left hanging in the air by using a tableau. We started the scene by a small argument between Kerry and Sandra and this helped create a atmosphere and also helped set the scene. I played the character Kerry he is a teenager who wants to become a mechanic. When I acted this out I made Kerry behave as if he didn’t want to be there so I was rude to Sandra and I emphasized the fact that the two Sisters didn’t like me and that I fixed her dads car. I mainly followed the basic outline of the script so I was achieving the same goals. Kerry at this point in the scene I seemed very interested and fascinated about the details of the plane so I added a sense of keenness to his attitude. I did this by constantly asking questions like did you see it come down? Was it on fire? Was there anyone alive you could help? Was it German or English? What type of plane was it? Kerry was quite a good character to play because he was keen, hardworking and he did have a very small attitude towards people.
The third play we performed was Sweeny Todd; once again the storyline shows a main character getting their revenge. The story is about a Victorian barber seeking revenge for the rape of his wife, the abduction of his daughter and his transportation to Australia by a ruthless Judge aided by his unscrupulous Beadle. Todd decides to kill everyone who raped his wife and with help from his landlady chop them up and use them as fillings for her pies. We start at the scene where Sweeny Todd returns and meets Mrs Lovett his old friend and landlady who runs a unsuccessful pie shop. I was playing the role of Sweeny Todd. Sweeny Todd I think was a hard character to play because he has big changes in moods, he will sometimes move from a cheerful frame of mind to a inhuman disposition. One of the most important lines in the scene is where he says with a evil tone “oh you shall see a change in me. That husband soft as butter, died on the very same night. And in his place shall rise such a man to put the whole world to fright”. This is a really powerful speech, which helps tell the future for the rest of the play.
When our group was thinking about what topical feature to add to our assessment we found a radio news article about a sectarian attack by a loyalist paramilitary group who shot dead a Catholic postman in the heart of a protestant estate. A good thing about the report was that is said that he had a family and a 14th month old baby, which might create sympathisers. We decided that we would create two or three tableau’s to emphasise the impact this would have had on his family and friends. We planned to play the report then fade up a deep but strong red light and when the report has finished the song “What a wonderful world” Revealing the family of the postman. We thought this would make a big impact towards the audience and to help them think about justice and revenge over a wide-range of subjects like we are dealing with today’s current world affaires.