Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 33

Lesson: Monday 26th March 2018

During this lesson, we blocked the remainder of the play - scenes 14 to 16. Anna doesn't speak much in these final three scenes apart from a small monologue that doesn't seem to have any coherent thought. In the final two scenes that Anna is in (Anna is not in Scene 16) she is seriously mentally unwell which is possibly caused by severe post-natal depression or from ECT. I have previously commented on these scenes, but as we were blocking them, we collectively came up with more ideas about the meaning behind each scene and the lines within the scenes.  

Scene 14

Carol's section in this scene is called Picnic and doesn't feature Carol. It shows John and Anna on a clifftop where John tells Anna that Carol has died. The speech that John gives is an immensely long winded way to say that 'your mum killed herself' but maybe he is doing this to keep on protecting Anna from what Carol has done. This can be seen later in the scene where he says that he "wanted to shield" which further shows that the majority of what he has done is to protect both Anna and Carol. Maybe the reason the way he says the speech is because he has been stood on the clifftop for some time so has had plenty of time to think about how he's going to phrase it. It was suggested that John is angry with the way that Carol killed herself - by being hit by a train. This is because John is a train driver so it feels as though Carol has purposefully chosen this way to die as if to hurt John even more - it's incredibly tiring to go out of her way to find some train tracks and a train. 

There is no speech in Anna's section of the scene, instead all of the feeling is largely internalised in Anna and we only show this through small movements. In this scene, Anna is staring at baby Bonnie in a Moses basket where she "desperately wants to pick her up but can't". This may be a physical ailment due to the impact of the ECT on Anna's body but I think that this is much more of a mental ailment. This is because before Bonnie was born, Anna was ready to become a mother and seemed happy at the prospect. Now, however, she feels as though she can't even touch her baby which is possibly a fear from the dream that Anna describes in Scene 11. It may be that Anna is struggling to feel close to Bonnie or that she doesn't want any connection with her so that Bonnie won't be impacted in the way that she was from her mother's death. 

The direction for this scene was fascinating to participate in because there are moments of physical simultaneousness which weren't as present in the earlier scenes. I think that this was easier to include because there are fewer lines in this scene meaning that physical movement can be enjoyed much more by an audience and as it is easier to remember the physicality of a scene when you don't have any lines to say during the scene. In the first 10-15 seconds of the scene, the stage is quiet. Anna is sat on a chair/hospital bed staring at a Moses basket, internally reaching for Bonnie. After 10-15 seconds she draws her hands back to signify that she can't pick up Bonnie for the aforementioned reasons. Throughout the next part of the scene, Anna remains still and continues to stare at Bonnie. In Carol's section of the scene we see a 16 year old Anna wearing a denim jacket that Anna may wear in scene 2 to show continuation. When John says the word "dead" there is movement from all three sections of the stage. In Carol's section, Anna sinks to the floor and sits cross legged, mirroring the position that Anna in Anna's scene is sitting on the chair (cross-legged with a straight back) - the older Anna moves to this position at the word "dead". In Bonnie's section, Bonnie also sinks to the floor but is much more open as she is more shocked rather than upset in her section. This creates a nice echo throughout the time zones and makes for a nice physical image. 

Scene 15 

I have already explained my ideas for this scene in a previous blog, so I will focus on the directing element for Anna. At the beginning of the scene, Anna is sat near the front of the stage and is holding Bonnie in her arms - she is somewhat afraid of Bonnie, hence why she puts her on the floor at the word "Down". We have set it in the hallway outside of a bathroom so that a bath doesn't have to come on stage, it can remain in the doorway offstage which makes it easier for Anna to run the bath so that she can commit suicide. After Anna puts Bonnie down, she backs away from it silently so she doesn't wake it up and doesn't have to calm her down from another crying fit. When she gets to the doorway, Anna gets into the bathtub (standing up) and continues with the rest of her small monologue. This creates for a nice image as we could potentially have water raining down on Anna whilst she's saying her monologue. When Anna says the line "Kettles gone" she smiles as though this is funny and shows this in her tone as well - this is to hint to the audience that Anna is going to use a kettle (electricity) in committing suicide. It also highlights how mentally unstable Anna is. During the course of this section of the monologue,  Anna sits down in the bath where she remains until the end of the scene which again creates a nice image. 

A large idea that spans the whole of the play was presented during this rehearsal. This was that all of the scenes are happening on the same day but years apart. For instance, Scene 5 may take place on the 31st March but in the 1980's for Carol, the 1990's for Anna, and the 2030's for Bonnie. This would suggest that the actions that have happened before in the opposing sections have a direct impact on what is happening in one section. For example in Scene 14 when Anna is told that Carol has died, this would be the same day in Anna's section which could further explain why Anna is so affected in this scene, despite the impact of the ECT. 

Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 32

N2C: Wednesday 21st March 2018

At this session Cast A performed the first full run through from Scene 1 to Scene 13. This is a key aspect of the rehearsal process because it allowed for me to see the progression of Anna's character and to connect the feelings/emotion/state of mind that Anna was in during the previous scene to the scene that I was performing in. The run through allowed for me to see the dramatic decline in Anna's mental health, particularly in scenes 11, 12, and 13. It also showed how relentless the play is due to its nature of simultaneous lines and cues coming from another scene. Overall, I think I managed adequately, despite the stress of constantly having to be on top of where the cast is in a scene even if we have skipped large chunks of the scene. In some instances it took me a little longer to find where I was in a scene which may have led to some cuing errors for other people but I think this was largely unnoticeable. The cast forgot lines/messed up in the majority of scenes leading to prolonged silence, but this was mostly easily fixed by other people changing their own lines to catch the other person up within the scene or by someone in another section/time zone saying their next line to combat the silence. Additionally, we all need to know where silences for dramatic effect are being placed so that we don't come in with our line when someone wasn't finished with their own line or was pausing to add more emotion to a line. As this is such a difficult play, it was understandable that mistakes were going to be made but these are reasonable within the time limit. We are planning to perform the play w.c 23rd April with tech rehearsals the previous week.

Scene 2

In my opinion, this scene went well overall. There were few mistakes made for lines given that for the majority of the scene, it is a duologue between Anna and Dan with a couple of interjections from Carol. Izzy, who plays Carol in Cast A, said that myself and Peter (who plays Dan) should slow down slightly when coming to her interjections so that she can say them without being cut off by myself or Peter. The reason why Carol's interjections are often cut out in this scene is because throughout the rehearsal process, this scene has been largely practised without the input of Carol's lines, hence making it harder to remember that her lines come at random points within the scene. In my opinion, I think that I performed well in this scene as we received some laughs from the other cast members who were not performing. In my opinion, I think that I was able to effectively show that Anna was drunk and/or high whilst also showing that she didn't want to show Dan that she was as drunk and/or high as she actually is - she's trying to control herself. There were some notes given in this scene regarding tone of voice and direction. When Dan says "For what?" (why did you make me cross?), Peter should say this as though it's a test. Anna realises this and so answers the question as though it is a test, even though she doesn't know the answer. When Anna says "A friendship over. A mate, a pal over" she is referencing her earlier lines when she's discussing with Dan about what she called him when she was asking for an "IV to take the edge off (her) comedown". She should be joking with him which juxtaposes her following lines where she is angry that Dan doesn't regard her as his friend. When Dan says "When you come out of all this" he should gesture to how Anna looks and is behaving and should say this with a disgusted tone. Anna should get annoyed at this as it hurts her feelings and is potentially why she becomes much less enthusiastic in the rest of the scene.

Scene 4

In this scene, there was a large amount of skipping around lines which meant that both cues and some important lines were missed or were said at the wrong time. In this scene, Anna is happy that John has come to see her but there is still an air of awkwardness in the scene. As Marlon (as John) is stood behind me for the majority of the scene, I often feel as though I should turn around in my seat in order to talk to him. However, this means that my back is towards the audience and therefore my facial expressions are obscured from view. Although facing the front of the stage and away from Marlon feels unnatural, it doesn't look unnatural and the audience will still be able to identify that Anna is talking to John (given that he is the only person that is in her section of the stage during this scene).

Scene 5 

As we have had severe trouble with this scene in the past, it was rather incredible that we managed to get through the whole scene without major silences. However, we did skip around a lot and some cues were missed. Moreover, some conversations were happening too fast on one side of the stage which meant that all other conversations couldn't get their lines in leading to big crashes. In some instances, people forgot lines altogether and their counterpart had to fill in the line for them so that they were able to move the scene on and remind their partner what the next part of the scene would be. I had to do this once for Bruce, as Jamie - "No milk right?" - so that I could catch him up to where he was in the scene. This didn't work that effectively however, as it made him more confused. We may have to have a discussion as a cast as to what we do in this kind of situation. The monologue in this scene was done largely well despite losing my voice towards the end of it due to constantly talking. I need to power out the monologue though as it was getting increasingly hard to hear. I noticed that this is applicable to all my large pieces of speech. I think that this is because my voice gets tired after a while or that I know that no-one has a cue for a while so I'm not as loud. I also need to look up more as my eyes were focused on a patch of ground behind Bruce. Anna would probably look directly at Jamie for the majority of the monologue because he's told her to look at him and ignore the camera. It also gives a reason for Jamie to become intoxicated with the idea of Anna because he may feel as though he has a deeper connection with her. I managed to show Anna's thought process through facial expressions but I need to show this through the tone of my voice much more in order to keep the audience interested and to give some variety to the monologue. During the monologue, when Anna mentions her father - that he had picked her up from a train - she should have a physical reaction to telling this part of the story because it is a big deal - after all, she did try to have sex with him.

Scene 6 

I feel like this scene was one of my stronger scenes regarding tone and the timing of my lines. However, collectively we did still mess up on some of the timings of the scene - in some cases we skipped ahead a couple of pages only to go back to the place that we were in before we skipped. Personally, I have difficulty with lines that are at the same time as some in Bonnie's scene because they are small and don't really mean anything - they are simply Anna's thought process into the line "I'm not really sure what to do with that information. I'm sorry". On the line "I'm a whole human being"  I should act more desperate. This is because Anna wants this to be true, but doesn't necessarily think that it's true. She may not feel completely whole because she hasn't felt close to her mother in years and has just come off an addiction from heroin and various other drugs.

Scene 9

This scene was done well and from my recollection there were no major line issues. As it has been said before for this scene, myself and Maya (as Daisy) should eat more 'mime' food but as I have said before this is hard because of the lack of real food that we probably won't have until the final performance. On the speech about pragmatism, my volume should be higher - as I have previously stated in this blog, I find achieving a high volume harder on monologues and larger pieces of speech.

Scene 11 

There were major syncing issues in this scene that were similar to those described in Scene 2. In order to rectify this, we would need to communicate with one another about how fast lines should go in relation to one another and what silences we may choose to have. I think that I was able to add some of Carol's characteristics to Anna's stance, especially at the start when she's staring off into the distance which is what Carol does after she's given birth to Anna. Anna needs to be more on edge when she refers to the "blood between (her) legs" because it certainly seems traumatic. The monologue at the end of the scene needs more work because we haven't really worked on how to say specific lines before and how to act towards the midwife. I would need to be more freaked out by the prospect of either Bonnie or Carol being in her dream and having a "Big black hole for a mouth" and "little teeth" - Anna is describing a nightmare.

Scene 12 

This scene was not done well at all. We kept missing cues and in some cases missed out lines all together. There was a lot of repetition because people kept skipping ahead to other parts within the scene which led to people not knowing where they were and saying the wrong lines at the wrong time. In this scene Anna says "It's very close" - it is not clear what she thinks is very close. As she's talking about how everything turned chaotic after Carol's death, she may be saying that she feels as though she feels closer to her mother than she ever has been. This is concerning for John and for the audience as it suggests that Anna will do similar things to what Carol has done.

Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 31

Over the past few weeks, we have been running various scenes of AOAS and have been receiving notes on acting now that the majority of us know our lines relatively well.

Scene 5

We managed to get through the entirety of Scene 5 with few slip ups. In this scene, it was suggested that Anna should become more upset as the scene progresses as she's having to analyse her life leading up to how she entered the commune. This is what would prompt Jamie to be so cautious in making Anna speak about her journey, which would lead him to almost turning the camera off at one point during the scene. This raises the question about why Anna would continue with telling her story. She could want to tell someone outside of her family about what happened because they might not judge her as much as her family would because her family would have known her since she was small, allowing for them to question what could have been. Anna may have not told anyone at all the full story due to embarrassment or fear at how they'd react. As Jamie is making a film she may want to be as honest as she can and she suspects that she won't see him again so won't have to face that part of her life by being confronted by another person. Maybe Anna is determined to tell the entire story to someone so that she can get some relief from it, placing some of the burden on someone else whom its unlikely she'll see again. Anna may have wanted to do this for herself to prove that she'd gotten past the worst point in her life and that she was better for it. The two "Carol" 's towards the end of the monologue should be hard to say and should be stuttered slightly. We interpreted it as Anna saying her mother's name for the first time since her death and has finally come to terms with what Carol did to herself and how that affected Anna.

Scene 8

In Scene 8, Anna has no lines which made it initially somewhat hard for me to enact what the script was suggesting, especially as I often didn't have make up and we don't yet have access to a wedding dress. After Anna has done her make up she begins dancing which is why we showed her pretending to bow to a courtier as though she was a royal or something of the kind. She is overacting and may be trying to make herself feel fewer nerves about getting married to Jamie. This humour juxtaposed what is happening on Carol's side of the stage - Emma, John, and Toby are talking about Carol having another baby which soon turns into a full scale argument. Compared to this, Anna's scene is much calmer than Carol's. When John comes in to dance with her, Anna may feel slightly embarrassed because she's dancing to herself. However, John doesn't seem to mind because he twirls her around and pulls her into a dance with him.

Scene 9

Little was changed in the initial part of this scene. When Daisy says "I'm saying it looks nice" Anna enters and says "Thank you". At this point, Anna should put her hand on Jamie's shoulder to show that he should calm down as Daisy is joking and purposefully annoying him - before this, Daisy was making a joke about Jamie's penis. The main issue that I have in this scene is remembering the line "I want this baby" - it is vital that I remember this line because it directly juxtaposes Carol who says "I don't want another baby" directly after this. Additionally, an issue that is present for both myself and Maya (who plays Daisy) is eating the food on the table after this line. This is because we find it hard to eat invisible food but I think that during the final performance this will be okay because there will be real food within the scene (hopefully). Towards the end of the scene, Anna says that she's 'amazed' at what her body "is doing and will do and can do" and at this Anna stands up, using her body as a prop. I decided to stand at the line "completely connected to something" because it felt as though Anna's speech gains momentum at this point and she is becoming much more excited at the prospect of her pregnancy. It is this speech that makes Daisy say "I told your mother to have a baby. To give her purpose" because she feels more connected to Anna as Anna has revealed her feeling to Daisy. After this, Anna puts her hand on Daisy's shoulder to comfort her and could also show that Anna is beginning to act like a stereotypical mother - caring.

Scene 11

In this scene, there are easy parallels to draw between Anna and Carol. Not only do the scenes in this section directly correspond with each other for the majority of the scene such as various simultaneous lines, Anna's emotions and stance in this scene mirror those of Carol in Scene 5 after Carol has just had Anna. This similarity would be worrying to an audience member because it's clear that Carol killed herself and the audience may now be beginning to understand why Anna eventually commits suicide. At the beginning of the scene when Lola, the midwife, has yet to come onstage and during the early part of the scene with Lola, Anna stares at the same point of the room (at the moment the fire exit sign) which she stares at in some of the following scenes. This is to show that Anna is severely tired and potentially on various drugs/hormones due to the birth of Bonnie - it is normal for this to happen after giving birth because it's an incredibly tiring and shocking experience, especially because at the end of this, Anna will have to take home a baby that she'd have to care for. When Anna begins to say "No" she should move her stare towards the top of a chair in front of her, to show that she is becoming more aware because she isn't staring to a point that's that far away. The tone of voice for Anna in this scene is vitally important because she hardly moves, becoming a lot like Carol - any movement that Anna makes will draw the audience's attention due to the lack of movement from her in this scene even if they are small reactions. Many of these small reactions are from where Lola touches her back or tries to give her a hug. It could be that Anna is longing for touch because she needs to be comforted after a potentially traumatic birth, hence why she may lean in to Lola's touch. The moment of contact may draw her from her staring stupor hence why Anna asks "How did you make her sleep?". The song that we decided that Lola should sing in this scene is Hush Little Baby - Hush little baby don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird, and if that mocking bird don't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring" - as it can easily be manipulated so that Carol speaks at the same time as the word Mama is being sung. At the first Mama, Anna begins to get agitated and should use her arm to show this by raising them slightly. This would easily pave the way for the following "I'm frightened".

Scene 12

When Anna enters the stage, she stays in the same spot and maintains eye contact with John and has a small smile until she says "I might have been swimming" when she walks forward a bit. She moves slightly in front of John (Marlon) so that it doesn't seem as though John is threatening (this was due to Marlon's height as he is quite a bit taller than me). When Anna is talking about how she might have been swimming, her focus moves to the top of the chair on stage. This shows that she's going back into her own head space again and is acting more and more like Carol which deeply concerns John and may somewhat concern the audience. At the line "I'm glad to see you" Anna turns slightly back to John, changing her focus again. The minimal amount of movement so far remind me of how Carol is portrayed. John comments that something is painful. Before Anna's line of "What is Daddy?" there should be a slight pause to emphasise that Anna is calling John her dad again which we know from Scene 4 is incredibly emotional for John to hear. Additionally, the pause shows that she genuinely doesn't know what is causing John pain because she's so full up on drugs she doesn't know what's happening to her. This could be a possible reason for the ECT. After this line, Anna's focus returns to the top of the chair; when she sits on the chair, her focus returns to a high up place (the fire exit sign) showing a continuation from Scene 11. When Anna is speaking directly to John she moves her head slightly to the side (e.g. at the line "Can you?" and "Are you cold?") to indicate that she's speaking to him which is slightly disconcerting because she's not facing him fully.

Gecko Theatre - The Wedding

On Tuesday 27th February 2018 we went to see a performance by Gecko Theatre called The Wedding. Gecko is a physical theatre company and was founded relatively recently in 2001 and is led by the Artistic Director Amit Lahav, who was the director for The Wedding. The performers had all helped to devise the piece and hailed from all around the world from Siberia to Toronto to London. All of the people that Lahav works with and indeed himself want to make a change in society, they want to say that they were there doing something about and highlighting global issues which heavily influenced the piece.

The Trailer for The Wedding

A Behind the Scenes Look at The Wedding

The main premise of The Wedding was a 'revolution' against the rulers - bosses at work - by using the metaphor of a wedding. It certainly reminded me of the bourgeoisie of the Russian Revolution rising up against the rich - in this case the businessmen who are at the top of the 'food chain'. The similarities between weddings and work are simple - both are binding contracts for life or at least the majority of life. There were a variety of languages within the piece which meant that many of the lines were lost to me. However, this meant that I focused on the physical element of the piece which was quite easy as the performers portrayed their emotions through their movement and tone what they were speaking - this meant that the language barrier didn't impact on how I understood the piece. The variety of languages symbolised that the things that occurred within the piece could happen anywhere and brought a sense of unison whereby everyone around the world has the same goals and have similar lives.

At the beginning of the piece, it seemed as though birth or childhood were being represented by people coming through a slide and landing on a mass of stuffed animals. I think that this represented how fleeting childhood and innocence are before people are forced into 'marriage' (work) especially as children are forced to work in less developed countries. Even children in developed countries work in schools which reduces the amount of childhood that people can have. The loss of childhood was shown in The Wedding by the person who initially came out of the slide - they immediately were given a wedding dress (which symbolised throughout the piece people being married to their job) and celebrated for having one. It seemed initially that work was going to be fun as those in a wedding dress were greeted with enthusiasm by the other businessmen but it soon transpired that business was ruled by those who had the most money. When people were first in the wedding dress, they didn't really know what they were doing in work and so were much more hesitant with their physical movement showing that they were inexperienced.


All the people who worked seemed to work for the same cause - bringing those who had recently worn wedding dresses into their workplace. Each person seemed really focused on achieving high status within the company except for those who started and joined the revolution which I will discuss later. To show status within the piece, different coloured briefcases were used - grey briefcases were given to the everyday workers and those with brown briefcases seemed to be managers and higher up within the company. This made for an unhealthy working environment where the workers were simply working so that they could get the brown briefcase.

There were three main story lines within the piece and they each focused on a different member within society who were all forced under the capitalist workforce that had been presented. One story focused on a woman who started the revolution; another on the first person that came from the slide who seemed to have it all - the job, a wife, and a good life - who ended up wanting a divorce from his job and wife; and a homeless refugee who was literally living out of a suitcase.

The story of the revolutionary woman (shown opposite) is potentially as follows. She seemingly wanted to escape from the life of work that she had been thrust into and during the peak of her desperation towards the beginning of the play had tried to climb back up the slide but had failed. This could show the want that most people have to return to their childhood to no avail as they have to return to work. However, when she did try to return to childhood, she encountered a yellow flower (which is displayed on her shirt in the image opposite) and pinned it onto her shirt. This showed that she was trying to rebel against her colleagues and her boss by showing difference to other people within the piece. Soon, she had an accomplice, another woman whom she pinned a flower to her shirt. It seemed that the two of them were different and was slightly suggested that the two were in a relationship - when the other woman decided to take off the flower, the revolutionary woman seemed to crumple and have her heart destroyed (metaphorically at least). In order to show this, the revolutionary woman slowly fell to the floor in an outstanding display of physical prowess. This woman seemed to be the only person to step out from her work bubble and when she did so the overwhelming noises that accompanied the piece were removed and the audience was allowed a slight break from the noise. As the piece began to draw to a close, this woman began to shout a speech through a megaphone. The speeches were in another language and although I couldn't understand the words that she was saying, I certainly felt what she was trying to convey which left me feeling empowered by her. The one thing that frustrated me about her character was that as the other main characters got closure with their respective partners, the revolutionary woman did not - or at least I didn't see her closure. I think that Gecko could have highlighted her relationship with the other woman a bit more towards the end. However, I do understand why they may have left it out.

 The story of the man (shown opposite) who wanted a divorce from his job may be potentially as follows. I understood this story line more than I did the revolutionary woman's story. This was because this man, named Robin (I think) was speaking in English which made what he was doing a saying a lot more accessible to me. Up until about a third of the way through the play I had forgotten about this character because he was introduced toward the beginning and we didn't come back to him until he was fully invested in his work. One of the images that was the most striking is when symbolic objects were floating around (as shown in the image opposite) to show how Robin spent his days - we went through this sequence a couple of times which signified how how similar each day is when stuck under an oppressive regime such as work. Robin seemed to rise up in the ranks of his job very quickly, acquiring his very own brown briefcase but we soon began to see that he hated his job. When he decided that he wanted to quit his job, we saw him ask for a divorce - something that is usually associated with weddings. This brought the audience back to how weddings and jobs were both a contract and very similar. Robin was shown being suffocated by his job as he did a movement sequence coming out of the box that he was having a meeting in and pulling on his tie. This was a very strong image and could also signify how some people feel constricted and suffocated by their marriage as well as by their jobs. After this, the aforementioned image (as shown in the picture) returned but instead Robin was refusing to give in to his work. His wife didn't want him when he moved away from these symbolic objects but when the objects moved in front of him, she was attracted to him once again. This suggests that his wife was married to his job rather than to Robin himself. This created a rift between the two which was solved at the end when they were seen coming together again in a sweet moment. Robin's character was much more complex than the revolutionary woman's and I felt more connection to him than to her. However, I was much more attached to the next character, the homeless refugee.

Initially, the homeless refugee (shown opposite) was seen to be a humorous character and was a welcome relief from the complexity of what I had previously seen (which I hadn't yet figured out) which allowed the audience to grow a strong attachment to his character and subsequently his family. This character first appeared when he waved from inside a suitcase which I had previously not noticed on stage - as I didn't notice it immediately, it created a new meaning whereby people usually don't notice the homeless. Before the image shown for Robin, Robin had told the homeless refugee to move along, showing that those with money have no regard to those who are struggling to survive. It also shows that those with money don't want to get to know those who have come from another country. As I felt I had gotten to know this character, when his and his family's story was shown, I felt a deep sadness and anger at myself that I had not taken the opportunity to read up on refugee's stories. It seemed as though the character felt as if he could trust us because he was the only character who interacted with the audience throughout the piece until the end and he wilfully showed us his story. In order for his family to survive, this character decided to get a job and wore a wedding dress which his wife disagreed with. When he did get a job he was tormented and made to hold a gun by those in power which shows how the media portrays refugees as terrorists, making another political statement, perhaps about Trump's Muslim ban during his early presidency. This character's wife made a strong bond with the revolutionary woman and the two began a small dance together at the front of the stage where the suitcase was and where previously the revolutionary woman had gone to, to get away from work. This seemed to be the place where those in charge didn't look and didn't care about. Thus began the revolution headed by the revolutionary woman, helped by the refugees and somewhat by Robin later.

Aside from the three main story lines, there were other images before, during and after the revolution that made an impact on me. For example, throughout the piece there was the reoccurring image of the big boss sat at a high rise table with rich food (and Trump style hair) whilst those on the other side of the table were clinging on the table. This brings trying to get a seat at the table a physical meaning. When the revolution occurred the boss was removed from the table, found to be on stilts and toppled over. The chaos in this is what made me think of the connection between the piece and the Russian Revolution.

After the revolution, everybody seemed to get along perfectly well and the stage seemed peaceful for the first time since the beginning of the piece. There was a sense of togetherness at the end especially as the performers sat and clapped a simple rhythm that I think they expected the audience to join in with. Although on this occasion the audience didn't join in, I certainly felt a connection between myself and the performers. I expected that something else would go wrong at the end but we instead were left with hope that a perfect society could exist if we all worked together and overthrew those in charge. This has been seen many times throughout history and could be seen as though Gecko were suggesting that perfect communism could work, but as humans we know that this wouldn't work and could suggest that we'll never get to this point. Although, as the piece was left open ended with hope, it suggests that peace could occur one day.

I personally loved the piece although it did take me a while to get used to the physicality. When I did, I could feel myself become enraptured with it and the characters within it. The piece made me constantly think about the meaning behind each physical movement and allowed me to use historical knowledge. At the end of the performance I felt instantly empowered and connected to everyone else in the room.


(Most images taken from the Gecko Instagram page. No copyright infringement intended.)