Performance Evaluation

Evaluation

Overall, I feel like my performance went well. I researched the context of the play in great detail as well as including various Brecht techniques we learned in lessons. In addition, I took on the advice Ben and Chris gave me in rehearsals and made sure I made the suitable changes or improvements he suggested so that I could incorporate these in my performance. There were no major mistakes in my performance as I remembered all my lines and the relationships between the characters and objectives were clear.

I was given a number of notes in rehearsals that I needed to use in order to improve my performance. One of these included to make sure I faced the audience rather than having my back to the audience so that they could see me better. Therefore, I decided to cheat my body language so that I was speaking to the audience rather than other characters on stage. This allowed the audience to see more of my facial expressions, therefore having a clearer understanding of the emotions of my character. Furthermore, it became easier to project my voice and it was easier for the audience to hear me. A group note we received was to be more energetic and enthusiastic as the studio audience. This would make the show more exciting and would engage the audience. In order to do this, I made sure I was always concentrating on the action on stage and made sure my I projected loudly and used large gestures. I felt that this was effective as we had a lot of energy in the show.

I feel like I used my voice well in the show as I projected loudly so that everyone could hear me clearly. This was quite difficult as I had a very sore throat which meant I had to strain my voice and put pressure on it. This meant that I couldn’t use my voice very effectively or to my full potential. However, I feel like I used my voice well in the show as I projected loudly so that everyone could hear me clearly. In my opening monologue for ‘The Price’, I had excellent projection and articulation so that I was audible and the audience could hear exactly what I was saying. I changed the volume of my voice when I got angry in the scene and also changed the pitch to be higher so that I would sound more furious and disgusted in a comedic manner which juxtaposed my previous character traits of being sophisticated and calm. My tone also became harsher and aggressive in order to demonstrate that I was offended and I was accusing the cashier of being rude and judgemental. This contrasted to when my character in ‘Britain’s got benefits’ when I was calm and friendly.  The emotion of anger also affected my breath as I became stressed and began to breath heavier which showed this change in emotion. I also changed my physical and vocal relationship as I became less still with large, powerful body language and moved around a lot to show my rage and confusion.

I feel like I had good characterisation in my performance and I permanently had very high energy. I felt like this was important in this performance as we used Brecht techniques which could make the performance exaggerated or abstract. I also contrasted my characters to make them very different. I found particular mannerisms that my characters did and incorporated these in my performance. I felt like it was very hard to have good characterisation for my character in ‘The Price’ as the script was very short, therefore there weren't many given circumstances for me to work with, hence making it difficult to understand how he would react in certain situations. In ‘Britain’s got benefits, it was hard to develop a character because he was a TV presenter who was permanently on camera. This meant that his personality would come across as being fake as he would be told to behave in a particular manner. This appeared as if the character would be wearing a mask, rather than revealing his true personality and what he really thought of people. This made it difficult to relate to the character. Furthermore, it was difficult to put emotion into my performance as we used Brecht techniques which includes alienating the audience and not allowing hem to create a personal connection with the character. 

The rehearsals following the performance were quite stressful because Ben was not there to direct us. He had a very good knowledge of the play and knew the running order. It became quite chaotic as it was hard to have someone who didn't know the play directing us. This was an obstacle at first as everyone was unclear about what we were supposed to do, however we successfully managed to work our way around this.

I feel like I anticipated the lines and acted like I already knew what the other characters were going to say. Therefore, my reaction was less truthful or believable towards the audience.  I think I did this because I was too busy focusing on not forgetting my lines rather than thinking as the character. We were told to act like this was the first time we had ever said the lines, this relates to our reaction as we must react like we've never heard the words before. This affected the work as I struggled to be truly in character on stage. In my next performance, I will make sure I work on how I react to others as well as how I act when I'm saying a line. This will make my performance more naturalistic and believable.

I don’t think that the audience fully understood the political messages that we were trying to convey in our play. The reaction from the audience is not how I hoped it would be. Firstly, they didn't laugh much in the sections in which I personally found comedic or amusing. This may be due to the dark humour such as Tom playing a blind man or Michael and Grace being heavily influenced by the status and power of the criminal they were questioning. I think they may have misunderstood or misinterpreted the jokes in it and didn't think it would have been suitable or acceptable to laugh. This made the Brecht technique of ‘Slap and tickle’ unsuccessful as there wasn't enough contrast between the comedy and the hard hitting realisation of the message behind it. In addition, some of the audience didn't understand the political messages in our piece. This suggests that our chosen method to convey these messages were unclear or unsuccessful. I don’t think they would have walked away from the performance started to reflect on the political messages in the performance. The 270 words was unsuccessful as nobody had enough time to finish saying their paragraph, this meant that the audience were left being confused rather than reflective. 

Austerity

Our show is based around the theme of austerity. The gameshow in which the play revolves around is called ‘Austerity the gameshow.’ I researched this in order to develop my understanding of the key themes. The official dentition of austerity is ‘A state of reduced spending and increased frugality in the financial sector. Austerity measures generally refer to the measures taken by governments to reduce expenditures in an attempt to shrink their growing budget deficits.’ Austerity is clearly linked with wealth and the government. This reflects upon current issues in society and the issues faced within the play.

Many cuts have been put in place due to Austerity. This includes the cut of Disability Benefits. This relates to our devised scene and demonstrated why it is currently an important political issue and puts our piece into context. There was recently an article about disability benefits which I read, I found that this was very useful when trying to understand the scene and why it has such a huge effect in the lives of the characters. Here is the link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/austerity-cuts-are-causing-mental-distress-and-are-linked-to-rise-in-suicides-health-professionals-a6712651.html

I also found a game called 'Austerity: The Game'. This is based on the board game ‘Monopoly.’ However, the cards show the differences in status between the ‘Bosses’ and the ‘Plebs.’ They show how money and power can affect lives and the constant between the two lifestyles. The Bosses are allowed to buy any property at any time, however the Plebs are only given this opportunity after one full rotation of the board. This shows the differences in how they are both treated. Here is the link to the board game:

http://usvsth3m.com/post/austerity-the-board-game

Political Play rehearsals

TV show

We started to rehearse for our political performance at the end of term. We started off by devising scenes based around the seven deadly sins we had created. Our scene was about disability benefits. Some disabled people have their benefits taken away from them as they are required to be fit for work. Working can be extremely difficult and stressful for someone with a disability and we wanted to demonstrate and portray the effect this may have on them. We decided to use the Brecht technique of 'slap and tickle' in which we would start our performance as being comedic and humorous before suddenly introducing the deep and hard hitting message to the audience. We started brain storming and experimenting with different ways in which we could convey this to the audience. We finally reached the idea that we could have a sketch based of a talent show such as 'Britain's got talent' or 'The X Factor' in which two contestants would compete to receive disability benefits and only one of them would be able to win. We then wanted to show the major negative effect this would have on the contestant who didn't win and how they would struggle to live their life. There was recently a news article in which someone sadly commit suicide because their disability benefits had been taken away from them. We thought we could use this or a similar story to show how dependant they are on their benefits and how important and crucial they are in their lives. We called our TV show 'Britain's got benefits' and the slogan was 'Are you disabled enough to receive benefits?' I played the role of the cheesy, blunt and obnoxious presenter. Georgie and Clay played the parts of Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell, the two judges, and Tom and Adjei played the parts of the two contestants. We tried to make our performance funny without being offensive in any way. Tom played the part of a blind man, we added comedy as he couldn't find his way over to the presenter, then couldn't find the microphone and couldn't find his way over to the cross. He then went on to sing 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone' before Simon commented 'You remind me of a young Stevie Wonder.'  This contrasted to him speaking about why he was there and why having benefits was a crucial part of his life and how taking them ways from him would be awful. The next contestant was Adjei, originally we thought he would be a contestant with cerebral palsy who performed a dance. However this could potentially be considered offensive or cruel in the perspective of the audience. Instead, we decided that he would have a zimo frame. He also told the judges about how working was extremely difficult for him and how the disability benefits are a crucial part of his life. The judges then asked him to dance for them, this is very cruel as he is clearly both unwilling and unable to dance for them. However, the presenter took away the zimo frame and forced him to dance. This shows how disabled people have a lack of control and status in society and can be controlled by the government who have little respect or consideration for them. They treat him like a puppet. Furthermore, it shows how people with a disability will struggle to do everyday tasks, especially without any benefits or support. From the government. At the end of the scene will ask the audience to vote for which contestant should win. Only one contestant would receive disability benefits, leaving the other contestant devastated. We would have a monologue about how upset they were and how they would struggle to work and life would become very difficult for them. I think this could be very hard hitting and emotional for the audience. Hopefully, this will change their perspective of the issue and make them realise the importance of the issue. 

The Price

We rehearsed for the scene that I was in with Becky and Grace. The scene was about how poverty or squalor can affect our everyday lives and the scene was an extreme version of this. We have the ending of The Price where the idea of a dead child being cheaper is introduced. The woman decided that it would be a good idea if they bought a dead baby, this is very shocking for the audience. Firstly, we rehearsed this by ourselves before going in and being directed by Ben. He blocked it for us so that the beginning of the piece takes place on top of the table; this idea works very well because it grabs the attention of the audience as we are above everyone else Furthermore, it emphasises the significance of the issue we are raising. Our piece is on a higher level than the others, this shows that the argument has reached its climax after escalating in previous scenes. The uses of visual levels demonstrates clearly and effectively demonstrates their current state of mind as well as their status. At the end of the scene, the characters scan through their items while being on the floor, this shows how low they have emotionally sunk, as they are paying for a dead child. The realisation of what society has become sinks in. I thought it was important to show the contrast between my character at the beginning of the scene where he comes across as calm, arrogant and selfish compared to the end of the scene where he is extremely angry and raging, losing any sense of pride or dignity he previously had. I always think of Will from 'The Inbetweeners' at the end of the scene and. I relate my characters rant to him when I’m trying to make his anger comedic rather than intimidating. Another very funny part is when I physically lift up Becky and scan her through the ‘beep-beep machine.’  It is very comedic for the audience. Furthermore, it raises the social issue of gender inequality or sexism because it implies that men are still seen as being in charge of women and having power over them. By showing this in a comedic fashion, it makes the message more memorable to the audience. 

TV adverts

Our adverts were based on anger and passion. We created two scenes based on this which were light hearted and comedic in nature. Firstly, we created an advert about anger. Adjei started the piece by shouting ‘I am angry!’ before punching Georgie, Clay and I in slow motion while we had little reaction to this. This made it funny for the audience. Tom came along and held out a chocolate bar before saying ‘Try this.’ Adjei then ate the bar before suddenly and miraculously becoming calm and peaceful. Ben decided that it would be funny to base the advert on an old Japanese advert in which other people would speak for them. This is funny as the speaking would be very different to their usual voice and would be completely out of time. Our second advert was about passion. The scene started with a girl walking past three very awkward and geeky guys. Suddenly, Adjei came in and offered us ‘passion pills’ which would suddenly make all girls fall for them. He threw them in the air and we all caught them. We shouted phrases such as ‘Sex is the best!’ or ‘I love vagina!’ before all the girls suddenly came towards us and were swooning. This portrays how the media and adverts can mislead customers or portray their product in an unrealistic light. 

Poltical Theatre Plays introduction

Play One

We read the first play that we will use in our performance this term. This was a play was based on the Seven Deadly Sins. The play was quite interesting due to the controversial subjects within it such as big companies taking over small companies and putting them out of business. I find this interesting because Britain is mainly a Protestant country, however there is a large variety of different religions. This stands out as the play write made the decision to base this play on Christianity and discuss it, rather than discussing other religions such as Islam. Unfortunately, there is a lot of racism that is bought up in the news towards them due to articles about terrorists, extremists and bombings. I also found it interesting that the play discusses the Seven Deadly Sins and links it to everyday life. I liked this play as it was quick paced, humorous and interesting. The concept was clever and enjoyable. However, at times it became rather confusing which meant that I lost interest in it. This play wasn’t as hard hitting as it could have been.

Play Two

The second play was called ‘The Price’ and was written by Lea Kitsopouloy and translated by Aliki Chapple. I found it much easier to follow and to enjoy due to the shocking themes which captivated the reader and kept us interested. I really enjoyed this play. The play was about two people at a supermarket who buying a child. They were talking about the child as if the child were merely an item rather than an actual human being. This was a shocking and grotesque concept to think about, however it really made me think about how we can relate the topics covered in the play to our own personal lives. The play also states how foreign children were cheaper, this is very controversial as it brings up theme s of racism. And suggests that foreign people could be seen to be a lower form of life. Moreover, it implies that disabled people are also a lower form of life. These issues to be very interesting and though provoking. I was cast as ‘Man’ in this play which I was happy about as I have monologues which talk about inequality and how unfair the system is. I began to think about how we can simply determine the value of a particular life then thought about parenthood and how some people are unable to have children, therefore they have to adopt instead. In America, it is extremely expensive to adopt a child, as it costs between $8,000 and $40,000. American citizens can be stripped of a parenting opportunity if they simply do not have the funds. This may bring up the question ‘Is adopting a child in America the same as buying a child?

Devised scenes

We are also devising scenes based around current issues which are classed as our own seven deadly sins. A topic for our scene was about benefit cuts. This is very unfair as they are less able to work and will not receive the support that they need. This sparks many creative ideas about how we could covey this issue in our piece and how we can show how unjust this problem is. I did some research on the topic and found out that in a survey, 79% agreed having disabled employees helps a company understand its disabled customers better. In addition, 45% of representatives who have not employed somebody with a learning disability were concerned it might be more difficult for members of public to deal with members of staff with a learning disability. This drops to 30% who have employed staff with a learning disability. There are just 7% of people with a learning disability in paid employment, compared to 46% of disabled people. It is clearly very difficult for people with learning difficulties to get a job, therefore it is very cruel to take away their benefits. There was another scene based around the question ‘Is anger the same as passion?’ This is very interesting as the two are very similar and there is often a very fine line between them. If someone is passionate about something, there are likely to defend it and become angry if someone offends the thing they are passionate about. Both emotions can lead to arguments or conflict. It is very debatable where the line is between the two emotions. A rant can be caused by both of them and often, passion will lead to anger. It is very debatable where the line is between the two emotions. A rant can be caused by both of them and often, passion will lead to anger.  The style of the performance is set out as a game show, this is very interesting as it relates to how TV and the media can misinterpret information or change it in order to make a story or interesting or entertaining. I feel like the play could go very well and I’m excited for it.

 

Political Protests

Political Theatre Protest

   We were told to create a political protest based around a political issue or problem that is currently going on. The protest would have to be 20-30 minutes long and should draw in a large number of people and have an effect on them and make them want to do something productive to improve the issue. Our idea was a protest about child soldiers- an issue which isn't currently talked about a lot in the news. We didn't want everyone to forget that this is still a hugely important issue which still affects hundreds of thousands of people today.

Research

We researched the topic of child soldiers in detail in order to expand our knowledge and understanding of our protest and the reason for protesting. I found out many fats which shocked me. Some children are under the age of 10 when they are forced to serve. Also, a few of the countries who have reported use of child soldiers since 2011 are Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Thailand, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In addition, 40% of the slaves are female, many of which are used as sex slaves, and therefore they are sexually assaulted or raped. A very worrying fact is that there are over 250,000 child soldiers in the world today, this is a huge number which made me wonder why the subject isn’t covered much by the press and doesn’t get the attention and support it clearly deserves. I found some of these statistics shocking and upsetting me which motivated me throughout the protest. This idea became very political when I found out some chid soldiers are recruited by the government rather than rebels, this shows how the corruption and cruelty of governments in some countries needs to change. Child soldiers go through many traumatic experiences. Some of the children have to go through the horrifying experience of killing their own family member. The child soldiers can be rectified or abducted in many ways. Some are abducted from their own homes. Villages may be forced to provide a certain number of children in exchange for their own protection from attacks. In rare cases, children volunteer because of ideological reasons to avenge the death of a family member. A crucial aspect of the protest is that there needs to be some way in which the problem can be resolved. There are various charities that can help decrease the number of child soldiers in the world, these include http://www.unicef.org.uk/ and https://www.warchild.org.uk/issues/child-soldiers.

Creating the protest

We had to think of an enticing and original way in which we could convey the ideas of our protest that would captivate the audience and make them want to change. We decided to use the stage area outside the canteen as this was at a high level and was at a place that many people could walk past to watch our protest. Our idea was to show three child soldiers partaking in military exercises such as marching, press ups and practising shooting. This all happened while they were being maliciously shouted at and beaten by their general. This helped to convey that hardship and trauma that the younger vulnerable children have to go through while fighting. The three soldiers wore placards around their neck which showed their age. The ages around our necks were 7, 8 and 9. This showed just how young the soldiers are and how traumatic this would be at their young age. We misspelt it to simultaneously show that we were child soldiers and also that child soldiers aren't educated, that their ability to shoot a gun is prioritised over learning to read or write. We also wrote this as a slogan, saying "taught how to use guns before they can write." We also had two girls playing the sex slaves, they were tied up to a pole using rope and were whipped by the general. We created many posters for the protest in order to capture the attention of people passing by. We also created large signs in order to add clarity to the protest. We were dressed up as soldiers and brought in props such as rope and guns. 

Problems

A key problem for us was the weather because we had chosen to set outside. Unfortunately, it was very windy which meant that many of the signs were blowing away and it was very cold. The cold weather made it more difficult to perform to the best of our ability. Furthermore, it meant that less people would want to be outside, therefore less people would be watching our protest. We had to use staples and a lot of tape in order to make sure that our signs wouldn’t blow away. This made the signs harder to see, therefore meaning we couldn’t catch the attention of the audience as easily as we would have liked and our location became less aesthetically pleasing. There weren’t many people outside which meant that it was hard to get the attention of everyone and get them to watch our protest. This meant that we decided to march round the school, going through the foyer by Reception and through the canteen in order to catch everyone’s attention. I feel like this was quite affective as we were able to use a marching exercise to demonstrate the military exercises the young children have to go though. At the beginning of the protest, one student decided they would walk up to us and try and join in the protest by picking up the guns and other props, marching alongside us and making immature comments. This became very distracting and frustrating for us, as performers. In addition, it became more difficult to act when Tom, who was playing the general, became clumsy with his whipping and actually whipped us with his belt which was very painful and distracting in the performance. Finally, we were unable to get any water guns for our protest because it is winter, therefore nobody was selling any. The water guns were meant to represent the childlike nature and innocence of the children. Moreover, we would have shot out fake blood or some other red liquid to make it more effective and scary. However, we had to use toy guns instead. In my opinion, this didn’t have the same effect as the water pistols would have had. 

Evaluation

Overall, I was pleased with how the performance went. I feel like we conveyed an important message to the audience and this made them remember how important it to make a change is. I feel like the performance side of our piece was very good and captured the attention of the audience and was entertaining as well as thought provoking. We had a lot of ideas for the performance and managed to include all of them. The piece was shocking for the audience and hopefully rather emotional. We marched around the school as Tom repeated simple phrases such as ‘250,000 child soldiers in the world today’ and ‘did you forget?’ in order to make everyone think. The costumes, set and props all came together well to make our performance very clear and simplistic rather than misleading or confusing. This is an important aspect in political theatre as the message is always obvious. However, I believe that we could have included the audience in some way in order to make our protest more memorable or keep the audience more interested. When I saw other groups speaking to the audience or including them, like in a piece of immersive theatre, I thought this was very clever and worked very well. Moreover, we could have made it clearer to the audience about how they could help and make a change. Perhaps, some of the member of our group could have been giving out leaflets or interviewing people passing by in order to improve their understanding of the topic. In addition, I would have changed the location to somewhere where there are more people, therefore we would have had a larger audience. I hope our protest had a lasting effect on the audience and would have been memorable. 

Political Theatre- Lesson 1

What is political theatre?

Political theatre is a type of theatre that challenges issues in society in order to make a statement about the world around us to the audience by exploring and challenging current political affairs. It aims to make a point and make audiences question the performance and message behind it rather than merely enjoying the experience of seeing a piece of theatre.  It is described as theatre that comments on political issues, political action or protest that has a theatrical quality to it. Political theatre can be thought provoking, relevant and educational towards the audience.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a theatre practicioner. Brecht believed "Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it."  This means that we shouldn’t just experience theatre and then move on with our normal everyday lives. Theatre should have a major impact on us that will enable us to make a beneficial change in society instead of showing us a naturalistic version of occurrences and events that we already know and can easily relate to.  Theatre can easily influence us and the way in which we lives our lives. Brecht wanted us to take advantage of this. He created a version of theatre called epic theatre, hence how the V-effekt came across. He shaped theatre in a way that had a huge impact upon its development. Before Brecht, naturalistic theatre was very popular and appeared to mirror society. Brecht believed that theatre should be used as a force for change.  We also learned about  Verfremdungseffekt or 'The V-Effekt.' This can also be know as alienation or distancing. It is a term Brecht used to describe the way in which actors created characters in Epic Theatre. This aims to use techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through reminding them of the artificiality of the piece of theatre being performed. By discourging the audience to identify with the character or create an emotional attatchment to them by making the performance strange or alien. This enables political theatre to make the differences between political theatre and other forms of theatre clear as it establishes that it is a show. This helps make a clear answer to the question ‘Is all theatre political?’ All theatre can have political aspects but most theatre has political context or undertones within the play. Gestus is an acting technique developed by Brecht. It is a combination of physical gestures and "gist" or attitude. It is a clear character gesture or movement used by an actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than merely portraying a character’s emotion. The interpretation of the gesture being performed is built on the character’s role within society and why they need to behave in a particular manner, rather than looking at the inner emotional motivation. Gestus can also be gesture with social commentary on current political events. Spass literally translates as ‘fun’. Brecht wanted to make his audience think rather than just enjoying the show. Brecht realised that while we are laughing, we are simultaneously thinking about the message behind it. The message itself may be serious rather than comedic. Comedy could be an excellent way of engaging the audience and forcing them to actually think about political issues of the piece. Spass was also an excellent way to break the tension. The dark humour of foul taste of this would be shocking for an audience. However, this actually highlights the painful truth of depression through shocking contrast and dark comedy. The audience will laugh. However, they will also question why they laughed.

Opposites and stereotypes

We had to get into pairs and create a still image of two opposites such as Rich and poor or winter and summer etc. It was interesting to see the similarities between the still images across the class. For example, the rich were usually standing up with open body language and confident or occasionally arrogant facial expressions whereas the poor were on the floor with enclosed bod language with shy or intimidated facial expressions. This clearly demonstrated how levels were used to portray status and emotions. This is interesting as political theatre relies on clarity and stereotypes. The fact that everyone used a very similar still images was a representation of how society believes that the rich are a lot more powerful than the poor and even look down on them due to their lower status and lack of power within society. This demonstrated how political theatre can affect the actors as well as the audience because they all see political events or issued through the same viewpoint. This related to when we did a performance in the lesson based around three emotions. Our group used the emotions of love, disbelief and intimidation. In our piece, two people were in love until the wife had an affair and the husband got very violent and abusive. This also showed the constrast between the light hearted comedy at the beginning and the shocking and scary violence at the end. Furthemore, this shows how the political message in a play can have a large impact on the actors and the audience. 

Cards

Each person was given a playing card, the card we were given was a representation of what our status for the exercise would be. The higher number, the higher the status. For example, a King or an Ace would be a very high status, however a 2 or a 3 would be a very low status. The card I was given was a King, therefore I had a very high status. This had a significant effect on the way in which I walked around the room and I made sure I stood up tall in order to appear taller as a higher level reflects a higher status. I made sure my posture was very good as my chest was sticking out with my chin up. My facial expression changed so that it was large and slightly exaggerated to demonstrate an arrogant and pompous attitude to those around me. I made sure I looked down upon those I thought had a low status and showed respect and smiled at those who also has a high status. This exercise demonstrated the stereotypes society has about status, wealth and power and how everyone thinks about how the status of individuals has a significant effect on the relationships between them. You could immediately tell how much status everyone had due to their body language and the way in which they interacted with everyone else. This shows how the class subconsciously made a political statement about society. After this, we lined up against the wall and two by two shook hands in front of the rest of the class, this also made the relationships between two different people very apparent depending on their status. However, for some pairs, placards were given. A placard is a sign or additional piece of written information presented on stage. This showed the prominent effect of language. The words had a significant effect on the action on stage and allowed the audience to see what was happening and the relationship between the two people from a completely different perspective. One placard read ‘Policeman on the take’ which reflected on the reports of police brutality and how they can abuse their power in society. These 4 words on the placards had a huge change on our viewpoint of what was happening. At first, the ironic nature of the placard appeared amusing for us, as audience. However, the effect of what was happening kicked in to show important political issues in society and some very serious issues. This helped me realise the effect that political theatre and language can have on an audience. 

Shrug

We all stood in a circle and were asked to shrug and say 'I dunno.' We were then told to exaggerate this in order to make it appear almost like a caricature of a stereotypical teenager. We performed almost as if we were puppets and we were being controlled by a puppeteer, when we shrugged it was like someone was pulling on our strings in order to lift up our shoulders. We then said ‘I dunno’ in a zombie like manner. After this, someone went up to the front and stood on a chair behind one of the zombie like teenagers in order to portray the puppeteer. The puppeteer then said ‘I am society’ in order to portray how society controls us and gives us a lack of freedom or individuality. This was a clear political statement which shows how a few words in a performance can have a major impact on the meaning behind it. The actor playing society said it with a large smile to represent the obnoxiousness and narrow mindedness of our society. This was clear and blunt which are two crucial aspects of political theatre. 

Nursery rhymes

We got into pairs and were told to stand on opposite sides of the room and perform a nursery rhyme to each other. This was difficult as the whole class had to perform a nursery rhyme all at the same time which got very confusing. We were then told to guess what our partner’s nursery rhyme was, this was very difficult at first as it was very hard to hear them when everyone was talking at the same time. We were then told that if we didn’t correctly guess what our partner’s nursery rhyme was that we would be shot. Suddenly, everyone became more urgent in what they were doing and the motivation made us work harder. This helped me realises the important of mime and gestures, which relates to a piece of political theatre. Brecht was the founder of ‘gestus’ which is similar to gestures. Gestus is an acting which carries the sense of a combination of physical gestures with attitude.   This exercise definitely highlighted the fact that clarity in political theatre is imperative. Clarity is crucial in political theatre, without it the message behind the piece could be misinterpreted or misunderstood which would completely take away the purpose of the performance.