"Lovesong" Professional Performance of a Play Analysis

Authors Avatar by newcustomer (student)

Word Count: 973

AS Drama and Theatre Studies

Performance Analysis

Title of performance                Lovesong

Venue                                The Lyric, Hammersmith

Performed                             7.30 pm, 18th January 2012

Direction and choreography         Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett

Designer                         Merle Hensel

Cast                                Edward Bennett, Sam Cox, Siân Phillips, Leanne Rowe

A story that tells the tale of a couple whose past and presentselves intertwine; Its concept of love over time, and how much it can endure, creates the perfect overlapping for a chronolgy of flashbacks of an episodic structure. This was effectively conveyed through the designer having the same space occupied between reality and it's memories. A spotlight served to bring to life an episode, whilst the other remained in a tableau in dimmed lighting.Within this space was a minimal set of a table and chairs, a refridgerator, a wardrobe, a bed, and a floor of autumnal coloured leaves, significant as to give prominence to the acting, rather than detract the audience's focus onto something else. The  space served as a functional dance space as well as a distance in proxemics between the elder Bill and Maggie. Perculiar entrances and exits out of the larger appliances (i.e. the refrigerator and wardrobe) made cleverly transitioned triggers for memories of the couple's past to come to life (i.e. as the charcter of the elder Bill opens the fridge, the character of the younger Maggie withdraws from the fridge), whilst unseen props such as the rotting hammock and the whithering peach tree symbolised a generating of time.

Join now!

As a consequence of the physical theatre through the dance extracts, and the play being performed in a Proscenium Arch theatre, the performance can substantially be identified as naturalistic with elements of abstraction. The extracts of dance were intimate hence why it is performed between the younger couple or between an elder and their partner from the past, insinuating a distance between the elder couple. The dances can be interpreted as an emblematisation of lovemaking as the duet movements are isolated and intimate. The slow, flowing dynamics of the younger couple (or an elder and their past romance) contrasts greatly, ...

This is a preview of the whole essay