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.