Final Performance Evaluation

On the 11th December we performed 'Blondie' to two separate audiences. The first audience was to our peers at school. I believe that the performance went well; the comical devices used in the play were spotted by the audience as they laughed at the appropriate times. However, I believe that the message behind the play was not seen by the audience. I think this occurred because we are familiar with them and their main focus was to judge our acting skills rather than actually watch the play. The second audience we performed 'Blondie' to was the friends and family of the actors taking part. I believe that their reaction was very different to the first audience as they did not find the comical devices in the piece as humorous. This may have been because there were many different age groups in the audience therefore; their idea of comedy may be different to the younger generations. On the other hand, the second audience reacted to the message of the play a lot better than the first audience. At the end of the performance, the audience made no sound and just looked at the screen displaying the question left with them; I took this as a success as they were too busy thinking about the performance and its meaning to applaud the actual performance.

In our performance, we used many Brechtian techniques successfully. One technique we used was using stereotypical characters from society and exaggerating their posture and movement even further. An example of this was when I played a cockney man going for a drink at the pub. To portray this character clearly to the audience I had slightly lean backwards when walking and also swing my arms a lot more. I also made my voice sound croaky (imitating a smokers voice) to show the stereotype. I believe that this was effective as this technique assisted in disconnecting the audience from the characters as it is so obviously exaggerated it is almost comical.

Another technique we successfully used which was Brechtian was the use of narrators. An example of this is the political leaders’ scene (Hitler in particular). Throughout the Hitler scene a narrator tells the whole story whist it is being acted out. I believe this was effective as it took away the seriousness of the topic and allowed the audience to focus on the events taking place. The also spoke with a storytelling voice as if they were speaking to children; this put the audience in an uncomfortable situation as they were not use to seeing history being re told in that way. I believe that this aided in making the audience focus on the message behind the play as they were interested in the relevance of this scene and why it is being told in such a way.

A Brechtian technique we took advantage of in our performance was the use of multiple actors playing one character at different times. When taking part in the 'Blondie' scenes, we were assigned tags of what characters were in the scene. There were 4 characters always on stage and for each character, roughly 4 actors played them at different times. The tags we were assigned signified when we were those characters and when the scene was finished you would remove the tag and leave it where it was found. This was another Brechtian technique which disconnected the audience from the characters and the emotions behind them. As the actor playing the character is constantly changing, it makes it more difficult for the audience to connect with the characters story as it is made very clear it is not real and they are watching a performance.

 

Personally, I feel that the final performance went rather well, apart from the technical difficulties at the beginning. As an actor I believe that I did we'll when working together in the ensemble scenes. I believe I took part very well and the transition from scene to scene was very slick due to my contribution of improvised dialect before the scene began. I was able to use this time period and dialect to show the audience what the scene was changing into which made the piece a lot more clear to them. I believe my scene as boy 1 went according to plan. However, I believe that I could have pushed my character even further towards the stereotype through movement and body language. As character A In the 'Blondie' scenes I think that I delivered my lines effectively although I feel like I could have done more communicating with my body movement. As a cop, I could have leaned forward to show I was interrogating them. After this scene I take part in the Bin Laden political leader scene. I believe that this scene went very well as the audience reacted in a shocked way which is what we were intending. On the other hand, I believe I could have put more effort into my acting. When playing a child I could have pushed the stereotype a lot further to add Gestus technique to the scene. Although I had many flaws in the performance, they were not big enough to jeopardise the positive outcome of the performance.

One of my peers, Parris had a very successful performance in the piece. When taking part in the ensemble scene, his transitions and the use of his body to create the setting assisted in the piece being slick and professional. Also, when playing B in the ‘Blondie’ scenes, Parris exaggerated his movements and changed the way he spoke to almost make a mockery of a woman; this added Brechtian techniques to our play which disconnected the audience from the characters and the storyline. Although Parris performed well in the piece I believe that there were some areas which could have been developed further. For example, when Parris was playing Bin Laden, I believe that he could have pushed the character even further. This would of effected the piece in a way which would have made the audience think about the play in a deeper way; if the character was extremely exaggerated then the audience would ask why this was done and possibly make links with the overall message the performance is attempting to send.

In creating this piece and researching about political theatre, I have learnt many things. Personally, I believe that political theatre is a place where you are able to express your views on society regardless whether they are right or wrong. Political theatre contradicts stereotypical theatre and challenges the audience, allowing them to react with the actors giving them an experience that only political theatre can provide. I also feel that political theatre gives practitioners the opportunity to question humanity and the habits we are surrounded by. I have seriously enjoyed working on this genre as it is different to anything I have ever experienced and made me think about theatre in a completely different aspect.

At the beginning of the term, I was asked the question ‘is all theatre political?’ my response to this was no they are not as each genre of theatre tackles ideas and issues in a very different way, whereas political theatre challenges the ideas and issues. Now that the term is over and I have been given more information on political theatre, my opinion has changed. I personally believe that almost every piece of theatre is political. No matter what genre you are working with, the practitioner has embedded a moral to be learnt or an implicit meaning behind the piece. The theatre does not have to be political for the piece to question certain aspects of our lives as most performances do. After this term I will look at all theatre differently and look deeper into the performance to try and understand what the piece is really trying to tell the audience.