Artaud - Part 4

Lesson: Thursday 23rd November 2017

In this session, we performed our final group Artaud pieces after making a few corrections to the pieces, improving parts, and adding parts.



Scenes
Entrances - 0:00 - 2:26
Freeze Frames - 2:26 - 3:50
Assaulting the Audience - 3:50 - 4:50
Ending - 4:50 - 6:01

Entrances - 0:00 - 2:26

At 0:00 - 0:19 Joel brought the audience into the space. The room was fairly dark, apart from the light of the torch that Joel was holding, which meant that the audience couldn't really see what was going on, only that there were shadows coming from the usage of the torch. This allowed for an element of surprise within the piece and meant that the audience were on edge somewhat from the beginning of the piece. From the limited amount that they could see, they could see that only two actors were visible which allowed for more suspense when they realised that the other three actors were missing as they already know that the other actors are part of the group. Moreover, the lack of music in this section made every small movement and small sound much more noticeable which allowed for a tense atmosphere. Furthermore, as Joel shined the torch in the audience's faces it made them feel like a suspect and uncomfortable before the piece has even begun.

At 0:50, the audience's focus is drawn to Kathryn which is done with the torch. Her position on the ground is a vulnerable, open one which makes her murder by Joel more serious. Much like with Kathryn, the attention is switched to the knife when it is lit by the torch as it glints in the light. This allowed the audience to understand easier what was about to occur. When Joel does murder Kathryn, the change of light is more noticeable because it is the first technological change in the piece thus far. The light changed from a white "innocent" light to a red "angry" light which could show the understanding of the Young Girl and Young Man's relationship because the two at first appear to be in love which is innocent and seems to be allowed by the audience. However, when the audience discover that their love is somewhat incestual, the love is not as accepted by the audience which may provoke a strong response to the script such as anger suggested by the red light. The red light also serves a much simpler purpose to show that Kathryn has been killed. Joel puts the knife into Kathryn's hands which could show that Kathryn is now the one who's in control of what is happening on stage in order to found out who had killed her and why they had done that, as shown by the line that is said later in the piece - "Tell me how it happened." This suggestion could make the line "Leave me alone God" imply that Kathryn is shunning God so that she can find out how she has been killed, which is then granted to her by God in the line "Tell me how it happened" in which she could be appealing to God to show her how she died.

At 1:15 Joel bangs on the door. This is the first loud noise in the piece which could shock the audience and set them on edge more so. Additionally, this served a practical purpose because it allowed myself and Lauren to enter the stage at the same time. We were both in sync (for example walking and sitting down) which made our movements creepier to the audience. As we both entered from opposite sides of the stage, some audience members didn't notice either one of us which made the shock of when they saw the other person, to be more prevalent.

One positive of this section is that every noise could startle due to the tense quiet atmosphere. Additionally, the lighting was well thought out as to when to change the lights so that they could make the biggest impact upon the audience. A negative of this section was that the entrances was slightly prolonged and could have been made shorter. However, this prolonged entrance tests the audience in a new way because they are forced to watch action that is really small and slow which assaults the audience in a different way.

Freeze Frames - 2:26 - 3:50

We made an improvement from last time on this section of the piece as the lights were now on for much longer during the freeze frames which allowed them to be visible to the audience (and the camera) for longer. The slight movement after each scrape of the knife/light change could make the audience question their own memory of what they had seen in the previous freeze frame. The lack of music/sound effects until after we banged on the risers, made a small soundscape and also allowed the audience to focus on the movements of the scene. The sudden noise after a prolonged silence assaults the audience's senses. Something that was totally coincidental was the ringing sound of the risers after we have finished making noise from them. This was effective because it easily flowed into the music.

Assaulting the Audience - 3:50 - 4:50

At 4:07 we use the phrase "I love you and everything is beautiful" which are specific words from the play "Spurt of Blood" that still allowed us to present the storyline. It may be difficult to see, but at this point we go to the audience and physically 'assault' them by touching them and stroking their faces. We could have done this for longer to prolong the audience's uncomfortableness. Eventually, we all get to saying the phrase together monotonously which could show how the Young Girl may be being manipulated by the Young Man because of the repetition from the both of them as shown here.

At 4:33 we again use a phrase from the play - "Bitch! Look at your body!". There is a contrast here from the slow movements that we have been showing before, to the sudden, quick jolt upwards just before we say the line, showing a change of pace. This quote from the play was said quite loud which again contrasts with the relative quiet from before, which adds to the assault on the audience.

 At 4:46, we pull the crates out from under the chairs of various audience members. We made an improvement from the last time that we performed the piece as we used three crates spread throughout the audience instead of a singular crate in the middle of the audience. This meant that all of the audience was included and made all of their experiences of the piece relatively similar. However, it was hard to get the slam of all three crates on time, largely because the audience's clothes and legs got caught on the crates. This part of the piece was overall effective because of the assault on the audience because they didn't know who was touching them because of the darkness of the room.

Ending - 4:50 - 6:01

At 4:52 we use the quote "Leave me alone God". It is clear to hear heavy breathing from all actors which created a small soundscape. The quote that we used was again from "Spurt of Blood" by Artaud which emphasised part of the script making it seem more important. We also used inspiration from an Anatomy of a Suicide lesson when we did the Physical Essay work where we restrained people and they tried to get to the other side of the room. In this piece, we restrained Kathryn which made the other actors God because Kathryn says the aforementioned line. The light change after Kathryn says this line, represents the huge spurt of blood that is given in the stage directions; this stage direction is also seen by myself, Lauren, Maya, and Joel slowly leaning back. This juxtaposes the quick action from before which messes with the pace and makes the piece almost jolty which could suggest some form of stylised movements.

At 5:04 we again used an extract from the script - "Tell me how it happened." This links back to the beginning of the piece where we showed Kathryn being murdered by Joel as Kathryn's character could be asking how she was killed. The shadow image that we created answers the demand of Kathryn's character.

At 5:30 we used a walking lift to show the anger that Kathryn's character had towards Joel. It could have looked more effective if we had thought to use the shadow of it to hit the back wall, in order to create more shadow images. The lights showed the mechanics of the lift rather than the impressive movement of the lift itself. At 5:44, after we have put Maya on the ground, the music stops and we look at the audience; this is not visible on the recording because of the lack of light.

 Overall, I think that this was an effective piece but we could have thought more about costume and make up so that we all matched and so that we would have assaulted the audience's senses more.