When the doctor arrived in the village the villagers were huddled around in a semi circle, not really knowing what to think of the strange woman. Families were together as one. My character was a young girl; I was in very low status and sitting very close to my mother. I became very scared because I’d never seen anyone like that before and this was shown in my facial expressions.
In the doctors bag was a bottle of water this symbolised how easy water is provided in our country, but a person living in a third world would have to track for miles to get water, then have to carry it back which would be very heavy, it wouldn’t even be fresh. In our community we have so many different foods to choose from and are so easy to get. The doctor used the chocolate in her bag as a bribe to gain trust but they didn’t even know what it was. They don’t have much choice in what they eat. They have to eat what is provided or they would die of starvation. We take food for granted because we never really think that there are people starving when we are full from eating so much. We choose to diet to lose weight, but there on a never-ending diet, which they can’t help. If they were to eat like we do they may get ill and not survive because there bodies are not used to it, their diet is very bland and does not vary.
While the doctor was trying to convince the village she was there to help her mobile phone rang making a strange noise the villagers had never heard bore. They didn’t know what it was and most were terrified.
The doctor tried to convince the villagers it was harmless but it kind of broke the trust she had gained from showing them her food.
In Role Diary
When we came to create a waiting room for the third world villager and western family we found out that the doctor had wanted the villager to donate an organ in return for supplies for his village.
We had done a short piece of drama where we had met the western family who needed an organ donation, and that donor was the villager. So we made up a waiting room using semiotics, we put things that we use all the time on one side for example Magazines, water dispenser etc. This is to show that when characters were to enter the waiting room they would sit on this side and not think anything of it.
We take things like that for granted, not realising that the villagers have never even seen things like that before. The way the chairs are arranged is to separate the two half’s so that when other objects are added the two sides will represent rich and poor.
The television is placed between the two halves to show how we share, we host children in need over television, which helps third world villages. The TV is run by electricity that they do not have.
The cool water dispenser is to signify how easy we can get water, we are never without it, but some African families are short on it and have to walk for miles and it is not kept cool as water in a water dispenser is.
The third world villagers have to think about where their next meal is coming from, and by having magazines on a table in the waiting room this shows that we read and think about unimportant things, such as in famous peoples lives not our own.
All those things are placed on the rich side but the items placed on the poor side, are a clock, telephone and toilet. We have a clock to tell us the time and a telephone to ring people they don’t have electricity or batteries to run the clock and they would not understand to concept of time portrayed by our clocks. They would not know what a telephone was there for as there are no such thing as telephones in there country. The toilet is to show hygiene we use the toilet flush away with ‘water’ they do not have a water supply for drainage. A toilet would confuse the villager he’s never seen one before he wouldn’t know what to do with it. It also shows how hygienic we are which makes us healthier.
From here we introduced actors into the waiting room three characters were placed in the rich side, the mother of the westerner needing a donation and two sisters. On the other side was the third world villager. We used forum theatre at this stage to make the scene to the highest standard we could. When forum theatre is used a scene is created and watched by the rest of the group. At any time during the drama the people involved the observers and actors can stop the piece say what they think is going wrong and improve on it also the observers can put themselves into the drama as a new character or replace an existing one. We started off this drama by the westerners trying to communicate with the villager but he did not respond one of the sisters was told to go and reassure him. She walked straight across the room and sat right next to him this did not work so we used forum theatre to redo it this time the sister stopped and turned back for reassurance from her family we took this slow to show the tension between the different cultures this is because they are strangers to one another and wouldn’t really know what to say in a difficult situation.
