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[cjames59]

Evaluation

Overall I believe we had a strong performance. Our rehearsals leading up to our performance were strong and we felt very confident going into the performance. I felt at the the time that the material we were working with was strong. Linking to work that we had discussed with Helena and Tom. Who’s this for? Who’s story being told ?was a consistent thought within our work. We felt that combining sections of auto biographical and biographical script would although us some variety as well as a way to bring us to gather as group with something that we have in common with each other. We knew our audience would be drama students so using our own biographical sections played by each other would allow us to connect with the audience but also have weight to the lines we were speaking due to the respect that we had for each other. Then when we were thinking about who’s story is not being told we thought of people that we could connect with our ideas of “Dreams” with people outside of university. University can often feel like a bubble constantly living in the moment of our lives potentially never thinking how far down the line in the future. So thinking of older people's dreams would be a good way to connect our ideas together. I also believe visually during our performance we encouraged a lot of experimentation in our online performance. Firstly we incorporated elements of a multimedia into our piece. We used a animation during of performance which I thought offered a variation from a normal acting as well as thematically relating to the idea “age” in our piece, the idea of our dreams changing as we grow up, and the use of cartoons or animations linking back to the idea of youth and cartoons often inspiring our dreams from a young age. Also not as effective but still good use stylised performance, our use of bubbles and gallons help carry visual and thematic advantages. The bubbles linked back to that childlike nature of our piece but also represents the idea of “Eve’s bubble being popped”. However in my opinion this prop did not reach its visual potential. The bubbles were difficult to see on camera, difficult to create enough bubbles and also to try and not cover our laptops in soap. But the balloons we used were quite effective, the barons were thematically relevant and worked well as being visually interesting to watch. Overall these elements were incorporated to give a sense of liveness to our piece incorporating the ideas of using off the frame of the screen and ensuring all dialogue was spoken to the camera, giving the feeling of direct address.

Influences

When we first began work on this project we all came to the conclusion that we wanted to work with auto/biographical work. We came to this conclusion within the first two weeks or so of work. During our first meeting we established a common thing between all of us as a group that we could then begin working. We came to that common factor being our love of Drama. From there we began to ask ourselves a question that we had taken away from Tom Marshman’s lectures “who’s story is not being told”. From there we looked into the current events of how the subject of drama is lacking attention from the government. This was highly influenced by the recirculation of the governments old “Fatima retrain advert”. Although this advert was not a response by the government to the covid crisis it still echoed how many felt this is how the government was reacting. From this we began to focus our piece on the difficulties of being involved in the creative arts industry. This suggestion on focusing on sociopolitical issues reflected some influences of Brecht is that we initially discussed in our group, discussing the idea of including a didactic message in our piece as a response to the lack of response by the government to the arts industry. However we discussed the idea of “who’s story is being told” and the ethical issues of potentially taking someone’s words and using them for our own kind of message and ideology.

When of the teachings that we had pick up from Helaans lectures were the idea of “letting the testimony’s speak”. This inspired us to make sure our piece was more focused on the stories and ideas being spoken by ordinary people rather than having something overall complicated going theatrically

Research

First step of our research into our subject was looking into how the arts are viewed in politics. We first started looking into the advertisement that launched us into the topic of our piece , “Fatimas next job could be cyber”. This was the first thought that came to mind when we discussed the idea of lack of government support for the arts. Originally this advert was part of a restraining campaign from when cannot be identified, so although the ad was not part of any suggestion by the government to retrain due to covid it still felt to many as a kick in the teeth and a reflection of the government’s response to the arts during lockdown. What hit even harder was the original artist behind the photograph named Krys Alex, who was unaware her art was to be used in advert. According to a BBC news article Krys commented on the resurgence of the ad,”"I was shocked," the Atlanta-based photographer said in a YouTube video. Artists "should not be encouraged to stop doing what we love", she added.” "I woke up Monday morning to a bunch of emails and tags, and I really felt devastated," she said. "I immediately thought of Desire'e and how her face was just plastered all over social media and the internet, different news articles, and memes were created, and she had no clue. All of that really hurt me. We found this resonates with us quite quickly and acted as almost a mission statement for us, the government took Krys art and used it against her wishes, as such we would not do the same to anyone’s testimony.

During one of our major rehearsals we discussed to move away from mainly just the subject of Drama and the struggles in our industry to shifting focus on something that is a much more relatable subject, that one being one of achieving your dreams versus the way reality treats your dreams and aspirations. From there we discussed going away and doing our own certain research. What we came with was Ted talks from British author advisor on education in the arts to governments . Ken Robison discusses the idea of why the creative arts are not taught like other subjects. This helped provide a starting point in our piece as well as a major talking point we wanted to focus on. We wanted to slowly show the progression of dreams over a human life. But the talking point we wanted to focus on was the influence of education on our dreams, in relation to drama inside of education.

This led to us conducting research of how the arts are viewed in politics. We found articles that discussed the lack of support by the government during lockdown according to Art Review “There has been a 37 percent fall in entries for arts subjects at GCSE over the past decade.”and “The National Campaign for the Arts’ Arts Index 2020 report calculated a 43 percent fall in local authority arts funding from 2007 to 2018.” This was not helped by the fact that the “Cultural Recovery Fund is worth £1.57 billion.” This was a key sectioll

We also looked into drama at university how university students were dealing with the current lockdown. This section of the script came from research into how universities have been adjusting drama for new online learning and a personal place for me of not being able to enjoy the course I paid for and used to truly love.

Rehearsal Diary

Entry 1)

I would say the earliest rehearsal that was of our project was I think was around two weeks into our groups being formed. Within our first meeting we had decided upon a certain topic and style. However during our second meeting and rehearsal we expanded upon the idea of focusing on the difficulties of being a part of the creative arts. This is due to the resurgence of the fatimas advert as well as the government's response to the creative arts during the pandemic. This expanded into us all having a discussion of the difficulties of doing drama, whether to it be because of our education and how that related to drama or in Eve’s case a genuinely harmful experience during a performance. As we spoke to Helena we discussed the idea of moving away from a piece soupy focused on drama and instead focused on human nature and it’s Tesla toon to how our dreams change and how reality affects us from achieving our dreams. This then moved onto us discussing ideas of how to gain testimony.

Entry 2

After our previous rehearsal we went away and discussed ideas of how to gain testimony. We decided upon using a questionnaire as it would allow us to gain large amounts of testimony in a short period of time and would allow for a large amount of variation, some responses being short and brief, whereas others would be long and detailed. But this would be beneficial to us and it could potentially control the pace of our script. Overall thinking of questions was difficult as we wanted to balance complex questions of “what does a dream mean to you”, “what would you be if you could achieve your dream and trying to balance questions of dreams with questions to do with the creative arts and education. Finally this rehearsal concluded with us settling on questions we would use to then interview each other.

Entry 3

After our meeting with Helana after we had completed our interviews with each other and demonstrated the testimony we felt like we were in the right track we only had to wait for the rest of the questionnaires to be completed. After said questionnaires were completed we moved onto structuring the script and thinking of what else we could include. Because we had got a variety of responses from teenagers to adults we decided to structure our piece in terms of age. We first started by including voice recordings of young kids being asked what they want to be when they grow up, a relatable question that we would play at the start. We then focused on growing up in drama as a teenager talking about the times we have felt encouraged or discouraged about our dreams. During the adult portion of the pice we discussed the idea of using animation to break up the performance. Finally Angel spoke of Grandma being in the arts industry so we decided to take that as part as the elderly representation in the performance.

Entry 4

Our final critical rehearsal I would say would be our final tech rehearsal. This rehearsal was important as even though we were very stressed about all the technical aspects of our performances going well but in actuality we need to focus on the smaller physical aspects of our performance and we needed to go away and work on it.

Bibliography

https://www.creativemoment.co/that-fatima-ad

https://youtu.be/rh4WEXNmLaI

https://leftfootforward.org/2019/11/policy-spotlight-what-do-the-party-manifestos-say-about-the-arts-and-creative-sector

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-54505841

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dazeddigital.com/politics/article/50747/1/a-brief-explainer-on-the-government-dystopian-fatima-cyber-ad%3famp=1

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1. Who is speaking, who is spoken of and who listens is a result, as well as an act, of political struggle? (Alcoff in Heddon, p129)

What does Alcoff mean by this and how might it relate to the process of selecting material in the creation of a piece of verbatim theatre?

When creating verbatim theatre, the work is based on real people’s experiences and lives. But it’s important to consider who is being represented and who is doing this work. Alcoff suggested that verbatim theatre is a good idea. Alcoff is putting forward the idea that you need to take into consideration who the target audience is and who the verbatim comes from and who is being talked about in the piece is a good idea. From here your ideas can be piled together until a theme or particular idea comes through. Some pieces of theatre have a sort of ideology. Using verbatim theatre works well for this as it brings the message more power due to its authenticity and sincerity. Alcoff is suggesting that verbatim theatre is extremely good at creating pieces that portray real, raw emotion and political thematic points.

2. What do you understand by the term ‘metatheatrical’?

Metatheatre is theatre that is self aware and draws on the conventions of being theatre, eg direct addressing the audience.

3. In the chapter on 'Ethics: The Story of the Other', theatre practitioner Emily Mann is quoted as saying ‘There is no such thing as an objective documentary’ (p134).

What is Mann referring to here and how might this be felt in the challenges with representing verbatim material theatrically?

Basically she is referring to no piece of his objective. Almost every piece of work carries a viewpoint. No matter how much they attempt to put forward an unbiased opinion. Even audience members may consider the piece biased or who consider it has a point of view. Even in verbatim theatre the whole source of the piece stems from someone’s point of view. Also the director can cherry pick certain pieces of information making it unobjective.

Bibliography

Enright, H. (2011). Letting it Breathe: Writing and Performing the Words of Others in Studies in Theatre and Performance. Vol. 31. Issue 2. P181-192.

Heddon, D. (2008). Autobiography and performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p127-143.

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Describe the show as if you were trying to describe it to a close friend

Honestly the show is so much more than I expected, in full disclosure I didn’t put a dedication purely cause I couldn’t think of a way of processing my feelings. However the show blew away my expectations and reinvigorated my love for drama again. I haven’t enjoyed much theatre online especially ones focusing on the limits of laptops or computers eg, zoom calls or a live stream. The piece is a series of dedications by two actors that have been written by audience members. The dedications get elevated higher with the dedications getting combined with songs that carry a deeper meaning explained by the audience.

Describe how Uninvited Guests created a sense of a live event. – and also if you felt they didn’t create the sense of a live event.

Uninvited guests definitely created the senses of a live a event. Firstly they acknowledged the situation of the play and what we watching was not a reality, and instead welcomed it. Encouraging us to enjoy the night like a night of theatre and developing a shared sense of empathy. Us sharing in the different celebrations and toasting for those who mean something to us. Once we acknowledge we are all sharing this feeling of vulnerability we all become a little closer with other as an audience and therefore making the piece feeling more liver.

What did the use of personal audience dedication add to the piece? – How did you feel if your dedication was read out?

The dedications really grounded the overall piece and added a real sense of relatability. I think it really elavauted the monologues, by one the monologues had been written by people I know. It also really built up a connection with the rest of the audience.

What will you take from this piece ( be specific) when developing your own Biographical online work.

I have definitely taken away a few ideas away from the piece. I have learnt, that online performances can work best when it’s done simply and effectively, focusing on raw emotional matieral. Also how to use the distance between the camera and actor can create a sense of intamicy.

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1. What are the main steps Bryony Kimmins talks about in her devising process when describing developing 'Sex Idiot'?

Bryony describes her process in a very interesting way. Although she describes her work as “haphazardly” there is a method and consistency to her madness. Firstly Bryony mainly focuses on autobiographical work. She talks about her work doing a piece around her being given chlamydia. As she describes it, it doesn't make sense to build a piece around something that isn’t the focus of her life, and when she did work on it she said it felt “rich”. Bryony focuses on telling individual personal stories. Often collecting emails from people and even doing recordings with people in which they talk about sensitive events from their relationship. Bryony mainly focuses on giving honest performances, not trying to give one from an ideology or agenda. She will often work with objects and mainly varies the run time of her pieces, often choosing what’s best based on the subject matter.

2.a Explain what Bryony might mean by saying 'instead of egotistically driving forward to make another show, the form will be dictated by the subject matter.’ [Dey, Misri.Making solo performance : six practitioner interviews ]

I think what she means behind this quote, is that instead of beginning with the idea of doing a show, she allows for the subject matter to give life to her stories first.

2 b give specific examples from a few of her shows where the form comes directly from the content.

Two clear examples of her form coming from the content. One was her work on her chlamydia piece where she was struggling to find something to work on so instead it came to her when it was the only thing that was on her mind. Secondly was the The “head fuck of going out with Steve Morris”. In this piece Bryony met up with Steve and had a very emotional chat discussing her cheating on him and how much pain that caused. She came back to the studio and cried to the recording. From this she simply did a 6 second piece of hitting her head with flowers because she felt that was needed.

3.Looking at the practical work Tom Marshman did with you and the wider work within his showreel, what are the crossovers/ similarities between Tom Marshmans work and Bryony Kimmins work,in form, subject matter and process?

Both Tom and Bryony use autobiography content to form their pieces. Tom focusing on his experience as a gay man and Bryonny on herself and sexual content. They both give such strong feelings of honesty during their performances. Both have a variety of work, using song and dance and not limiting themselves to one style. They both understand the importance of using props, for example Tom used pieces form his recently passed grandmother and used them in his piece. Finally both focus on heavy subject matter.

4.What kind of autobiographical/ archival work would you like to make?

Honestly I don’t think I would make an autobiography piece about myself. Purely because I would find it difficult to fully put together an engaging piece of theatre based around my life, and I am not currently at the point where I could publicly put forward diffcult situations that have occurred in my life. I am however very keen to create archival works based on historical figures. For example my writing for performance script is based around the true story of Mercy Brown who’s death during 1892 led to the inspiration of Dracula. I find these stories interesting because it demonstrates the nativity of humanity and demonstrates lessons we can learn from the past and brings up relevant discussions today.

Kimmings, B. and Dey, M., 2018. Making Solo Performance: Six Practitioner Interviews. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Marshman, T., 2020. Tom Marshman Showreel. [video] Available at: <https://vimeo.com/391780412> [Accessed 8 November 2020].

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1.What are the main problems with acting that Brian Astbury identifies?

The first issue that was raised by Astbury, was the idea that the acting should be in the moment. Astbury suggests getting into the “perfect state of acting”. The concept that he suggests involves truly allowing the characters thoughts and emotions to be brought oneself while being “in the moment” to feel what they feel in real time. This then contradicts our own bodies “survival instincts”, flight, fight and freeze. We need to remove our 3 Fs in order to truly open up as an actor and allow a level of complexity that can be interfered with by our basic human nature.

Astbury essentially says that although Stanislavski’s methods and theories albeit revolutionary and important for understanding acting, are outdated and distracting. It can also be said that Stanislavski’s methods cannot be used for every situation. Astbury recounts an exercise where a student couldn’t react to the performance because they were too distracted analysing the scene in question with Stanislavski’s method. This therefore removes the idea that “acting is reacting”

2. How does this resonate with problems you have experienced with acting in the past?

Personally I don’t resonate with the ideas put forward. I believe that a technique to acting is neither right or wrong. The idea that an actor can simply put all the distractions and human instinct aside is what I would either describe as not a problem of acting, but simply part of acting itself. It can also be said that requiring that much control and discipline is a difficulty with acting. I believe there shouldn’t be a “wrong” or “right” way to act. Yes acting can be determined by a director however that stems from personal beliefs and artistic control. Acting is a multilayered and complex yet simple skill that can be shaped and adapted to any situation as long as the actor has a good sense of empathy.

3. a) How do you think his exercises could help you to overcome/address some of those challenges with acting that you identified in your previous answer? and b) What was your experience of working with them to prepare your monologue performance?

I don’t think they can because I have stated I don’t agree with his ideas or exceersiers . His image exercise was a good simple tool, however in use of my monologue where the character is in a moment of stillness, it becomes very to portray the body language and physically of the way I described him in my head.

Bibliography

Astbury, B., (2011). Trusting the Actor. California: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

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BLOG POST 3

1.In the NTS film look specifically at the dramaturgical choices being made, how does the character create a sense of urgency? how do they create another person/ people in the story even though it’s a monologue?

He creates a sense of urgency with his erratic and energetic behaviour, be it him panicking about directions or having a breakdown and crying. The positioning of the camera creates an “up close feeling” making it feel like we don’t have the time or space to move away from him to listen to every heightens breath.  This combined with the rapid editing of the phone adding multiple video messages gives the monologue a very fast pace as we miss dialogue from the other person. They create the feeling of another person by one, visually having the recent contacts of the characters phone on the screen throughout the monologue, already setting in stone that this monologue is not performed purely alone. Secondly the use of dialogue and editing, it makes us feel like he is having a one and one conversation with someone however we can’t hear the other person's words. Also the dialogue is written so that it feels each person he talks to is different and makes it feel like they are real, eg talking down to his child, being real with his mum and friendly to his co worker.

2. In Where I go (when I cant be where I am) What are the dramaturgical choices created through the music and images to depict her pain?

The video uses sound and imagery to make the audience feel her pain through our other senses like Aurtud would use sound and imagery to attack our senses as a way of making them feel uncomfortable. For example the beginning shows some abstract sort of “glitching” how a faulty computer would act. This could be a metaphor for her losing the connection between her partner or her losing connection from her body as she is over taken by pain. The colours are usually somewhat bright at the start, at one point white and black switching to red to signify pain and suffering. However this then switches to much more darker and sadder colours as her situation deteriorates. Finally audible noises are used almost like white noise to audible depict the pain that the woman is feeling.

3.From David Lanes article and the Tuesday lecture  define dramaturgy in your own words.

The Oxfords learner's dictionary defines dramaturgy as “the study or activity of writing dramatic texts”. David Lane says “Sarah Dickenson describes the dramaturg as a ‘situational role’: it’s always going to be different depending on the project you are working on.”. In my opinion dramaturgy is the study and writing of dramatic texts. However it’s when you study, write and perform does dramaturgy shapeshift and transform into the exploration of so many different areas of knowledge. We can be philosophers debating our own existence. Sociologists understand how we can help change the society around us. Basically drama covers so many areas of study and interest there’s no way to describe it other than to attach to that umbrella definition of the study and writing of drama.

Lane, D. and Silva, H., 2013. Progressive Dramaturgy By David Lane. [online] 17percent. Available at: <https://17percent.wordpress.com/closeup/progressive-dramaturgy-by-david-lane/> [Accessed 18 October 2020].

McKnight, J., 2020. Scenes For Survival Out Of The Woods Episode One. [video] Available at: <https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/latest/out-of-the-woods-episode-one> [Accessed 18 October 2020].

2020. Where I Go (When I Can’t Be Where I Am). [image] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08nvl52> [Accessed 18 October 2020].

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MAKING PERFORMANCE: BLOG POST 2

1.After listening to the Tuesday lecture and reading Tannahills essay on liveness and @thetheatre what do you think are the most important elements needed to create a live experience? - Please refer directly to at least 2 examples in either the essays or the lecture.

I think one of the most important parts of how to make a live experience is understanding the platform being used. From the essay on rhiannaboi we can understand the importance of using the elements of YouTube. For example the dynamic nature of youtube allows for the freedom of speech and expression, it’s ideal for engaging with young people and it allows the audience to interact with the characters. For example the essay states that people could comment on Sunny’s live stream. Tannahills says that Sunny’s video allows for “A communal yet private experience and ones where audiences could interact with”. This allows for audience members to be engaged as much as they want to be, whether it be commenting or expressing themselves privately, while acknowledging that so many other people are sharing the same experience. Secondly, when choosing a format to use for his performance a live stream adds a sense of uncertainty as there is no editing and is the moment, whereas a youtube video is a document that is unchangeable. Thirdly in the essay Tannahills says that “A common characteristic of Young you tube lip synchers is their disarming sincerity”, arguable this should be for any type of realistic performance, however it’s crucial when it’s a one play limited to a laptop camera.

2. Describe what Tannahill was trying to achieve by putting Rihannaboi online and whether you think it was successful as a piece of live theatre?

I think what Tannahill was trying to accomplish by making the piece online, was an engaging piece directly appealing to young people and youth issues, while exploring the dynamic platform that youtube is. Sunny’s story can really help people understand their own feelings. However I believe as a live theatre it was engaging but very uninteresting to watch. Sunny’s emotion and sincere performance resonates with me and others and although his narration of events is gripping. However the dialogue can feel very jarring and unrealistic for a 16 year old to behave. I think the use of interesting framing makes the monologue more than a one man narration of events and taking them up into us reliving his memories. However I have no understanding of how the livestream commenting played in the liveness of the original performance. However as a grounded live online theatre piece goes it worked effectively.

3. Were there any moments in Rhiannaboi that were particularly successful in terms of portraying connection to the audience's character or world? Please name them and describe how you might develop these techniques in your own work for the in class monologues.

An overall effect element of Sunny’s livestream was his eye contact. His consistent eye contact throughout grabs the audience's attention from the beginning and pulls us into Sunny’s story. This is especially useful due to the lack of variety in the performance, as well as just relying on Sunny’s singular performance. Secondly the dynamic use of camera angles really highlights the more emotional moments of the monologue. For example the moment between Sunny and Mr Bailey car ride, as Sunny lip syncs and spins the camera pulls us into the moment and also visually appealing to work. When he retells his story about jumping from the window while having Sunny symbolicy lying on the floor representing his fall. Finally when Sunny hides under his table with the laptop making us feel Sunny’s fear and desperation when trying to find the laptop. Thirdly Sunny’s performance is engaging and his in depth description makes a simple retelling a story truly engaging.

[cjames59]

Making Performance Blog : Post 1

The first monologue by Chris Tope, is about the brutal revenge of one man. After being sexually assaulted by another man who “tea bagged” him ( placing ones gentians over another). The man returns home that night and retrieves a golf club, then returns to the party and attacks his assaulter violently. The narrator then switches to give his focus on his interactions with a girl he meets inside a pub. The girl then begins to describe his hands as, almost having a mind of its own, and how she could watch them. What follows is what I  believe is a suggestion that the girls and man enjoy certain toxic or dark traits in one other and heavily hints that their relationship may have not been consensual and may have been aggressive,“she’s the one I went for”. However it then suggests there whatever kind of relationship they had was not meant to be,“she couldn’t watch forever”. This implies that the intensity of their relationship was too much for the woman to handle. The overall narrative and themes of the the narrator are summed up in a description of him by his old coach “a lot of power with no control”. The monologue focuses on one mans ability to change the lives of the people around him, through methods that don’t help him. The second monologue written by Hannah Silva focuses on a conversation between a daughter and farther. At first the dialogue can be very jarring, often talking at once with the layering and voices and the disorganised order of the monologue, focusing on the discussion of a “city in flames”, “inappropriate laughter” and a “metal door inside his brain”. Although the monologue can feel obtuse near the end of the piece the cluttered pieces of the puzzle fit together to form a piece dealing with dementia. The piece aims to focus on the mental health issue and the family struggles that can come with it with family members often forgetting their close relatives. This is expressed in the form of the the odd dialogue and the dream like imagery, which in mine opinion suggests the farther reliving his time in the Second World War during the blitz. Thirdly Chloe Moss delivers a monologue on 12 year old girls issues with anxiety in the 1980’s. The monologue takes the point of view of a memory as the girl struggles with her anxiety at school, which then she leaves school as she cannot stay in the schools bathrooms, which as she says is “the last thing she would do”. Although saying that the girl runs to the beach, and discusses her irrational fears of “great white sharks” and “quick sand”. The monologue gives a great a feeling of empathy towards the girls anxiety often expressing it through some levels of comedy eg wondering how best to tackle an old woman and thinking that someone who is approaching her is a serial killer. The young girl begins to converse with the old woman and the two begin to help each other, one with the old woman’s grief and the young girls anxiety. Overall the monologue gives a realistic portrayal of what can be seen as the struggle with anxiety and OCD. Zia Ahemed writes a love stricken piece about the ending of a two year relationship between a white woman and a Pakistan man. The monologue focuses on the difference that can occur between two people. The monologue shows the couple discussing how the woman knew that the two of them were different moments after they met each other she was willing to fight for it. However the man believes that she wouldn’t able to understand the struggles he faces, he is a “Londoner” as he would be recognised as something insulting by people not from London and also having to deal with the lack of approval from the woman’s farther. But the man continuously says “I love you” throughout the piece. Emphasising something important when it comes to relationships, which is that sometimes relationships don’t work sometimes and not out of a hating motivator or a lack of love but just purely the circumstances for which we have no control off. The last monologue makes quite literally no sense. It follows the story of a man who recalls the time he was arrested. Because he stole a push bike after leaving a party. The man then begins to describe how he imagined himself becoming a duck and think about different kind of duck thoughts. To be honest I believe this monologue is just truly pure absurdism at work and there no deeper meaning.

For me I would say the language surrounding the hands of the Narrator from the first monologue really sticks with me. The way they are described as “having a mind of their own” gives them a feeling of having their own entity. It’s not that there is any description of the mans hands themselves. Which allows the audience to make their own assumptions of the what they may look like. For me it’s a vivid image of slightly large hands that are well kept with maybe a small cut on the finger from where he’s been fidgeting with his pocket or a large cut on his knuckle from where he may have cleaned his hands too roughly. However I also I see them just surrounded with a dark presence, one that can be seen as welcoming to some with similar niche or darker intentions, but very intimidating to those who are not into the same mind set. Second image that sticks in my head is the description of “ city on fire” not purely for the destructive real life chaos it describes. But the idea it’s the thought of a man that has now seen the hardship first hand consistently replayed in his head as a vast empty void with just this one memory on loop. Finally the description of the man attacking the man with the golf club with a “splash”, the use of the word splash gives such horrific imagery that the man hit his sexual assaulter with such force that enough liquid was realised to form an audible and physical impact to the attack, mainly I can vividly see a golf club lodged in a mans head

The first video used frame or screen very interestingly as a video interview. Although it didn’t mention COVID it still clearly references and could be suggesting of leading from the past to change the future. In the second video it’s filmed as a video diary to her child as her she has to isolate her self from her child. The video is a expressive modern way to perform under COVID conditions. Almost replacing the original idea of performing a diary scene on stage eg through reading and writing aloud or some sort of audio-able narration meaning to represent some sort of inner thought.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmed, Z., 2016. Lah-di-dah London. [Online]

Harris, A., 2010. Come To Where I’m From Cardiff. [Online].

Moss, C., 2019. Quicksand Liverpool. [Online]

National Theatre of Scotland. 2020. Scenes For Survival Launch Collection | National Theatre Of Scotland. [online] Available at: <https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/latest/scenes-for-survival-launch-collection> [Accessed 5 October 2020].

Silva, H., 2013. Come To Where I’m From Plymouth. [Online].

Thorpe, C., 2010. Come To Where I'm From Manchester. [Online].