Josh and I had seen a production of Tristan and Yseult near the beginning of our work on Unit 4, and had seen definite parallels that we could use. The entire piece was set in “The Club of the Unloved”, and showed the members dressed in anoraks and glasses, calling themselves the “lovespotters”. It influenced us in terms of characterisation with the characters that were not in relationships such as Madge and Gerald in ‘Time and the Conways’, and ‘Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. We also used some of the script, taking lines from a piece of dialogue between the characters Tristan and Yseult, in one of the most intense scenes in the play. They are attempting to define love, and use a series of opposing statements such as “It is everything, it is nothing…It is a sensation of senselessness”. We felt that by splitting appropriate lines up amongst our group and working on them, it would echo the confusion and unpredictability of love we wanted to communicate.
When developing my version of the role of Helena in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, it was essential that I read all of her lines within the play, and not just the scene that we were using. Integral elements of her character would have been missed had I not researched this, and a complete picture could not have been achieved. Lines such as “I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight” suggest a more selfish Helena, than we see solely in Act 2 Scene 1, and “For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne/He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine” implies one that has very real justifications for her behaviour. After reading these lines, I felt far more sympathy for Helena’s character than is often portrayed, and so with my interpretation, did not want to portray her as unintelligent, or mock her too strongly. Our concept was to highlight blind love, not to ridicule the victims of it.
Near the start of the process, we studied Berkoff as a practitioner because of his ability to create scenarios and characters through the simplest of improvisations. Unit 4 was the first real time I had to create an extended piece of drama without the use of a script, especially without the foundation of GCSE Drama. Therefore, workshops where we focussed on devising were incredibly useful, and gave us the confidence we needed as a group. We worked on activities such as creating a scene, adding a character, adding a twist in the plot, etc, and began to see how simple it was to devise and develop a performance.
We used such a range of literature within our piece to create a clear journey for the audience, using both classical and modern texts to highlight our central theme of blind love. The audience would have been able to identify more closely with plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Beauty and the Beast, yet we also included less well-known texts such as The Positive Hour and the Secret Love life of Ophelia. By adding these it required the audience to relate their understanding of the more recognisable plays to the ones that were less familiar. They therefore had to consciously analyse what we were trying to portray, rather than being spoon-fed a more obvious message.
We wanted the audience to leave with a clearer understanding of our concept of blind and circumstantial love, and this was aided particularly by the structure of our piece. We started with a metaphor for the most extreme example of love: rape. The heavy breathing from the ‘victim’ combined with the aggressive, manipulative gestures and movements from the other actors on stage made this symbolism evident. The scenes that followed were placed in order of how open the characters’ eyes were to the realities of love, from completely closed, to completely open. We began with the scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Helena is desperately trying to win Demetrius’ affections. This was such a classic example of naivety in love; Demetrius states “I am sick when I do look on thee”, yet Helena seems unaffected “And I am sick when I look not on you”. On this particular line, to emphasis how unashamedly infatuated Helena is, the actor playing Demetrius put his hand in front of her face and she followed it when it moved. He pushes it to the ground, and she follows, yet she quickly recovers, almost unaware of what has just happened. This idea was echoed with the use of the other actors on stage, acting as characters who were frantically trying to open the lovers’ eyes. They used physical theatre and repeatedly attempted to pick Helena up and move her backwards, but to little avail.
The scenes contained to progress in the order relating to our concept, with texts such as Taming of the Shrew early on, and with the final conversation in A Doll’s House at the very end. The audience could recognise the changes these characters were going through, especially as with many of the scenes, we used two different versions. With Hedda Gabler for example, we used the actual script in the first half our piece, where the subtext implies that Brack and Hedda are meticulously planning a love affair. Here, they are not talking directly to one another, and instead use the metaphor of a train: “But suppose a third person were to step into the compartment?” In the second scene however, we simply used the blunt phrase “Will you shag me now?” As well as creating humour, this shorter scene showed the audience how much more easily they could have communicated with each other. This particular approach seemed successful as the contrast was so clear, and audience feedback suggested that it was fully understood.
In other scenes such as the adaptation of Time and the Conways, we used exaggeration of character to convey our concept. It was crucial that the audience understood that we were showing two people who were completely in love, yet neither had the courage to admit it. We communicated this by making both characters appear particularly nervous and unsure of their own emotions; Madge played by Ele often fidgeted with her hands and sat in a very awkward position with uncomfortable body language. I played the part of Gerald, and as soon as the scene began, I walked away from Madge, avoiding eye contact, with occasional glances towards her at appropriate moments. The other cast members supported this by standing on blocks behind both of the central characters and mimed pushing us together. Every time the conversation became stagnant they eased the pressure off, and appeared disheartened. Without this enhanced characterisation, the purpose of that particular scene, and therefore the purpose of our production would not be sufficiently clear.
