technique since it made the play comical at the beginning and helped me to understand that we
were not supposed to be drawn in since he is making a “mistake” in his acting. The audience were
also able to see the actors change their costumes which helped to establish the distance. Every time
the scene reached near its peak, and actor would go and change their garments. This effect made
me realise that I was watching the actors and distanced me from being too involved. It made the
pace smooth since they didn’t have to keep coming on and coming off the stage in order to change.
During the play Mr Kipps took on a number of different roles, this was obvious to us by changing of costumes and his style of acting. This was effective because he changed his style of acting for every character which made each character seem as its own person. He changed his stance, gesture, posture, facial expression and accent for every new character.
During the play, there was one main prop which was used. This was the basket which was used for:
- Table and chairs in the office when the actor and Arthur Kipps where discussing Alice Drablow’s death
- Seat on a train when the actor was travelling and he swapped places to represent a different journey.
- Used as basket to store papers in El Marsh house.
- Used as a bed with pillows and a duvet when the actor was sleeping in the house during the night.
- Used to represent horse when the actor and Arthur Kipps were coming back from the house.
This prop was used well and was able to be used imaginatively with the good acting skills. The actors bounced up and down to represent the journey and the jumping of the horse rocking the carriage.
During the play the actors used mime to represent a dog. They used this technique effectively by kneeling down and making gestures as though they were petting a real dog. When they referred to the dog they looked down and spoke down as though there was a real dog. When the dog was near its death the actor reaches out as though he wants to save “spider”. He showed his struggle through his facial expression and gesture which turning up the pitch of his voice as well as screaming out in desperation. When pretending they were riding a horse they bounced up and down to show the movement of the journey whilst moving their arms out as though they were riding the horse.
The play used many different special effect techniques which helped to create the eerie dark atmosphere. They used a gobo in the lighting effects; a gobo is a picture lens which is put in front of the light to make a picture on the backdrop which helps to set a scene. The play featured gobos for:
- The train journey to represent the window of the train.
- The house to represent the outside of Eel Marsh house
- A cross to represent the graveyard which was projected onto the curtain
- The stairs which gave it a scary effect because we could hear the noises of someone walking up.
This helped the audience establish the setting and the scene since it ensured that we knew where we were and when times changed.
The play also used smoke to represent the mist of the moors which made the scene appear more spooky and eerie. It made the audience feel fear because smoke usually emits the idea of danger. When there was no light in the theatre the actor shone a bright torch light into the audience, this shocked me because it immediately brought the element of fear into my mind. The actor also used candle light to enhance the suspense which made shadows to enhance the feeling of horror and dread. This all added to the build up of opening the door which seemed to be the main focus at this point, but the door wouldn’t open and the audience were immediately desensitised because it broke the flow of fear. The door then immediately flung open which shocked us worse because it happened at a time when we least expected. The audience were then shown a motion of a rocking chair, which usually appears to be sweet and friendly in a normal everyday situation but it was in a sinister position which frightened the audience. The audience felt the element of fear but also an element of suspense to know what had been in the room to rock the chair.
The sound effects during the play added to the suspense and mystery of the scenes. Every so often we would be hit with a spine tingling scream which scared the life out of the audience. The scream was presented cleverly because the sound of horse would be heard before the scream. On a number of occasions the sound of the horses’ hooves would play which would prepare the audience for the scream but then the noise would just stop almost as an anti-climax. The music box was also quite sinister because we imagine that sound to be sweet and intended for children but in this case it was the sound of heartache like a juxtaposition The sound effects highlighted the play.