Key performers and performances in Hannah and Hanna by Company of angels.

Key performers and performances

Title: Hannah and Hanna

Playwright: Company of angels

Where performed at: Gateway theatre, Chester

When: 7th November 2002.

Brief outline of play

Hannah and Hanna tells the story of a teenage asylum seeker, Hanna, having escaped from Kosovo in Margate who befriends a local girl of the same age. Bonded by a mutual love of pop music, the two girls develop a friendship capable of over-riding the prejudice that surrounds them.

In the play Hannah and Hanna, the two key performers I’ve chosen to study in detail are Hannah and Hanna. The key scenes chosen to study Hannah are when Hannah introduces herself to the audience and when Hanna goes round to her house.

The first scene to study is Hannah introducing herself. Hannah went from hating asylum seekers to forming a bond with Hanna and so ends up liking them. When she comes on stage she is on her own and therefore she must be confident, keep the audience attentive and interested. As she is the one and only focus at that point. She does this by coming on and standing very tall. Her head is held high and no part of her body is slouch or weighed down. She looks at the audience in the eyes and talks to them directly making the audience feel like a part of the play and making the scene more intimate. She looks very awake and confrontational. She looks slightly uneasy about something but confident about where she comes from. She is very agitated and does not keep still. Her body leans towards the audience when she says certain things, almost as if she’s telling a secret. She could however be pin pointing someone to look at targeting them adding to her intimidating presence. When she talks about someone she points to the backdrops and her eyes quickly meet the back of the stage, almost as if the someone she is talking about is right there behind her. She has a very strong Margate accent, which along with the volume of her voice adds to her confidence and her effect on stage. Her accent shows that Margate is where she lives. It is her territory, which when Hanna comes in is very important to her. She talks very fast, which suggests she has a lot to say and again shows the audience of her buoyancy. When she talks about things or people she does not like, she raises her voice when she says certain words and almost growls them out in disgust. Her eyebrows dip closer to her eyes, she grits her teeth and her eyes get narrower. This is usually when she leans forward into the audience. She keeps in the same area as she talks and doesn’t use much space on the stage. This is effective as she is the loudest she can possibly be and the closest making the audience feel more of a part of the play. She walked slightly from side to side but she kept quite stationary. This was easy for the audience to follow as if a person moves around too much the intimacy is lost. When Hanna comes on the stage Hannah is at the other end. This represents that they don’t yet know each other and Hannah had her arms crossed as if she was annoyed at Hanna for invading her space even though that part of the story had not started.

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The second key scene is when Hanna goes round to Hannah’s house and into Hannah’s room. At first when Hanna sits on the bed Hannah faces away from her hunched up but looking slightly comfortable because her bedroom is her territory. Her facial expressions at first show that she is unimpressed and does not want Hanna there. Her face is scrunched up when Hannah is looking at her to sow her annoyance but when Hanna looks away she looks her up and down in disgust. He facial expressions then are the same as at the beginning. When she is looking away she looks around the room and her faces is fairly relaxed but her curled up body posture shows she is not comfortable. The two are silent giving the atmosphere of awkwardness. Her use of space is again very limited she stays to the one spot trying not to draw attention to herself again adding to the tension. As the girls become more comfortable Hannah starts to uncurl her body and become more comfortable. She no longer avoids eye contact with Hanna and the gap between them closes. Hannah’s face also becomes a lot more relaxed (and normal). Eventually the girls get up and start to sing together. When they start Hanna constantly looks at Hannah to see what she is doing because she is not aware of her behavior but then they both become comfortable enough to sing loudly with smiles on the their faces and their heads held high. She also dances freely as well this may be because she is very comfortable or she may be showing off to Hanna to put her in her place.

The overall success of Hannah was that’s he had a good accent, lots of energy and clever facial expressions. She was believable. She was well spoken and easy to know what she was feeling. Used many tones of voice to suit her mood effectively and her movement and body language towards Hanna was accurate.

The second character to study is Hannah. She is an asylum seeker from Kosavo living in Margate and first hates it but then doesn’t want to leave.

When she comes on the stage, she does not look very confident. She does not smile and she holds her hands together with her head slightly down and her shoulders retreating inwards towards her body. She doesn’t look at the audience much. She seems to look up for approval or a reaction to check that what she is saying is not being judged by anyone. It is almost like the audience are part of he play and she id telling the audience a story as if they were a character in the play themselves. Her eyebrows are dropped and her eyes are nearly closed (possibly from crying). Her mouth is turned down and hardly opens when she talks because she is very quite and lacking in confidence. She uses even less space than Hanna as she stays in the same spot throughout the scene. The looks around several times to see if anyone is watching her because she is very nervous and self-conscious. When she talks about something she is passionate about, she raises her voice. Not in an aggressive way but after she does so she seems embarrassed that she has shown her feelings too much to strangers (the audience). She pauses a lot when she talks because she is uneasy about what she talks about because she is upset and embarrassed at her situation in Margate. When she talks about bad past experiences, she concentrates on the floor and we can see that’s he is envisaging that moment she is talking about. This adds emotion in the scene and gives the audience something to work on as they do not know what the situation is until Hanna tells them. She normally talks at a slow, quiet pace but as she gets more and more upset, her speech gets faster along with her breathing and her eyes dart around the floor but she still doesn’t look at the audience or become any less tense or insecure, she just goes into her own world of memories oblivious to the world around them.

The second scene is when Hanna goes round to Hannah’s house. Just like Hannah, Hanna’s actions are similar. She is very weary of where she is and it is evident that she ha been forced there and not gone of her own accord. Her body is hunched up but she is not as spread out as Hannah is because it is not her room. She feels worse because she knows that Hannah does not want her there. Again her main focus is on the floor and she also occasionally looks around but when she sees Hannah also looking her eye shot retreats to the floor again. When the two start to sing she look very apprehensive always looking to Hanna for reassurance. Her body is very rigid to start with but then she becomes more aware of space, moving around more and keeping eye contact with Hannah. We even catch a glimpse of them smiling at each other. Here we see they are very happy together and they attitudes towards each other change dramatically.

Hanna had a good constant accent. Her facial expressions kept realistic throughout. Her voice tones were well used and varied depending on her mood. Her feelings were shown well in her voice, eye contact and body movement. She was a very believable character the audience can relate to.