To get the message across to the audience is a very good thing, as the audiences, especially teenagers learn from this.
I enjoyed watching ‘Connected’ because first of all the staging was in front of me in an apron/thrust stage and I liked this because I felt as if I was really there in the scenes but invisible to the characters. The set designer chose very successful staging. The set design showed that the twins did not have much in their life as they only had a bed, a book, a tape player, and a tub of Fructis Styling Gel. This showed emptiness and loneliness because the stage was so empty. I felt sorry for them as they had little to entertain them and I think the audience felt this as well especially young people as they would know what it is like to be 18 and live in the real world. The play was very effective in this way and it worked well for the audience because these teenagers had nothing, no friends, no interests, nothing but each other.
The director chose very effective actors for this performance. I could understand their thoughts and feelings of hurt and anger. E.g. as when fearfulness came over Stephen and Joseph when the undercover reporter Sarah asked them where they joined; I think they were scared because they were seeing someone new. Then fear turned into anger when Sammy, Stephen, and Joseph’s nurse walked in and threw Sarah out. Once again, the emotion changes completely from anger to sadness and the one emotion that really struck me was sadness because I literally started to cry at this point of the play and I really did understand how Stephen and Joseph felt. My favorite actor was Stephen because he was really the main character in this play and he really showed who his character was and he was a very lonely teenager. Their body actions, facial expressions, gestures, body language, and posture created their characters because they were mostly slouching which showed that they were sad and depressed. I enjoyed learning about them, and I understood this play because of them. I noticed that Stephen and Joseph *moved quickly* as if they are scared sometimes. Their voices were of a good clarity and this shows they had confidence with one another. One of the characters I really felt sorry for was Stephen when he was having a nightmare especially when he came across to me and looked right in my eyes and shouted furiously, “How can you do this to me Mother”, this made me feel scared and frightened and I understood the anger of his feelings. Joseph also struck me as he said, “Needles in my veins…all over my body…electric shocks till we can’t feel each other.” The writer of the script must understand the real experiences of and reactions to conjoined twins. When I heard Stephen talk about the needles I had a picture in my head of how he felt and what was happening to him. The lighting was fabulous, they used red lighting for the nightmares, and dreams that they were having and they used dark lighting for night and white light for day. To show daytime the set designer had a grid up on the side of the stage and white light shone through and it looked like a window. It looked more like a cell than a room. The lighting played a very important part in this act because it created many moods and atmospheres. This was very useful. The costume for the two twins was ideal for them as the pajamas that they had on stuck together by velcro and was easy to rip apart for when Stephen was having dreams. Stephen was having dreams of a beautiful girl dressed in club gear she was acting very sexy and this did not appeal to Stephen much. The Girl represented Stephen’s freedom away from his brother, in a way, she is the operation that they are about to have; she is the thing that segregates them. The costume for Marie was mostly bedtime pajamas as most of the scenes were at night and in the morning she never wore much make-up either it was mostly natural colors for her. Josie, Marie’s friend came in one night drunk and she was wearing a short top and skirt and also was wearing glittery make-up this showed she was at a night club or at a pub and in the morning her make-up was all smeared this showed she had been sleeping. The girl that was in Stephen’s dreams was hardly dressed at all, she wore a bra and hot pants, but one time she was wearing a see through white dressing gown this showed that she had matured and that Stephen and Joseph would mature soon to. Stephen and Joseph’s nurse Sammy was dressed in a nurse outfit and she wore no make-up at all this told me that she wasn’t very appealing towards the twins. Sarah was dressed in a suit and wore glasses and lots of make-up this showed she was an undercover reporter and not a new nurse because. Stephen was interested in Elvis, he played his songs frequently and this showed he had some interests. When Stephen and Joseph slept they started hugging and letting go and continuing this while slow music with chimes was played, this showed that they had concerns about the separation and if they should have this operation or not. I enjoyed this because I understood how they felt about this operation coming up and I knew that they weren’t sure especially Joseph as he showed this while he wasn’t dreaming as well while Stephen acted brave and not bothered.
This performance is one of the best plays I have ever seen because it had a very good use of all the theatre arts. My favorite part of this performance was when Stephen and Joseph were dreaming. The lighting came into effect very good use and helped the audience understand what was going on. The use of staging was brilliant as we were on the same level as the actors. I would definitely recommend anyone over the age of 14 to go watch this performance because it is fantastic to learn from and have that experience of being able to watch the most important part of the twins life.
By Hannah Young
