"People, places and things"

"People, places and things"

What was your favourite moment of the production and why?

My favourite moment of the production was just before the ending when the main character has a box of drugs, from her past, in front of her and recites a mantra (which I presume was picked up in the support group). It was my favourite moment in the play as the actor manipulates the words so that when she starts saying them they are positive words of encouragement and strength. However, gradually the words become more negative and sinister, giving the mantra a whole new meaning, indicating that the main character should "say yes" to the drugs. This was also my favourite moment of the production as the audience don't actually know what she decides to. Yes, we know that her life becomes a struggle and that it goes back to the boring and almost pointless existence that it had before. However, audience members are left wondering if her life has become that way because she took the drugs or just simply because that's life and there is nothing we can do as human beings to stop it.

Pick one performer between you and analyse the way the communicated their character to you as an audience member.

“Foster”

Foster had open body language which communicated his loving and accepting nature to the audience. He is also a contrast to other characters as (excluding the party scene) he is quite reserved and down to earth. He communicates this endearing and calming nature through the calm and steady pace that he talks and the soft tone of his voice.

How did the production values effect your interpretation of the production?

 

The strobe lighting and loud music allowed me to view the production from the point of view of the main character, seeing her crazy drug influenced world. The staging also affected my interpretation as having the main characters bedroom coming down from above the stage and surrounding her allowed me to see that each event transitions into the next and what just happened directly affects the next scene. For example, when ‘Lucy’ “practises” in support group it affects how she approaches her parents in the next scene.

Pick 3 elements that you would like to experiment with in your devised rehearsal process

Ø  Multiple people representing one person

Ø  Circle of chairs- moving one seat at a time = a transition in subject matter

Ø  People trying to get their story to be heard over each other/ fighting for the attention, like an “essence machine” changing volumes on different sounds

Which practitioners have influenced this production?

Bertolt Brecht

·         The stage hands come onto the stage so that the audience don’t forget that they are watching a play.

·         Characters use multi-role (e.g the psychiatrist playing the patients mother).

·         There are plays mentioned within a play (e.g referencing to Romeo and Juliet).

·         We see aspects of a conventional play and reality crossing (e.g auditioning for a part in a lay within a play).