1) Fortune Teller Part 1 - 0:00 to 1:48
The immediate sound effects in this scene set a good precedent for what was to come later in the piece, despite Marlon's mistake of not splitting up the line "When you were a nipper". We still managed to keep in time so that we went down at the same time. My initial externalisation and reactions are very good, however, as the scene progresses I feel like I lost my reactions at some point. This is because in the rehearsal process I didn't feel the need to add in more facial masks, but as I found in the performance, it transpired that I needed more externalisation of my facial expressions.
A mistake on my part is when Marlon says "His face meanwhile staring into the ball", I didn't make sure I was in time with everyone else. This line for me was always an area of concern in rehearsals because there was a lack of clarity as to when to do the movement. Moreover, at the line of "Course we took no notice" I moved too early with my arm - again I feel that this was because there was a lack of clarity as to when we were going to perform the movement. Despite this, I feel that I certainly had clear movements of staccato wherein my movement was defined.
During the performance, I felt that I lost my Cockney accent on the line "You're having me on". I think that this happened because the line is said as a group so I forgot to add the accent. I also nearly broke character on Izzy's long "No!!" because she hadn't done this in rehearsal so this was unexpected.
2) Fortune Teller Part 2 - 1:48 - 4:57
As suggested in the previous scene, the general succinctness of the scene was lacking as was my own externalisation due to the lack of time I realised I had where I had dead time where I wasn't reacting to any of the action. The first example of this can be seen immediately where the drop of our arms was out of time. I think that this happened because we didn't focus on this small section as much because it marks the border between the previous scene and this scene in my mind certainly so limited time was spent until close to the performance to make the action defined and in time with one another. I have a lack of externalisation as is the same with Kathryn when we make the tent but my facial expressions are contrasting at the line "What a load of old bollocks!" and "And how he upset my Missus" which captures the feminity that I had to give to the Mother and masculinity that I chose to apply to the Chorus.
The strut at the line "We went pale a bit but in we marched" could have been much more exaggerated but due to limited spacing, the movement wasn't as big or exaggerated as I'd have liked. Moreover, I noticed again the lack of externalisation after "Same old schmutter on the table" which is an issue as the audience won't necessarily understand what the Mother is thinking in response to this scene. Despite this, I believe I had great defined staccato type movement after the line "I got his powers now".
During the performance, I was very pleased that we managed to get the timing of the clap after the line "Like a trap" which we had never managed to do in rehearsal. I think this made the piece better as it showed the audience that we could successfully have some moments of synchronisation. Despite this, myself and Izzy are noticeably out of time with Maya and Kathryn at the movement on the floor which could have been addressed by clarifying on what words we were going to be moving - this is an issue that I believe hindered our rehearsal process.
The biggest issue within this scene was the line fumble from Kathryn at "They wanted not to hear the other word so turned and fled". This mistake made us all go out of sync but Kathryn had been having trouble with this line throughout the rehearsal process so it can't be attributed to her alone that she made a slight mistake. The mistake can also be attributed to the whole cast because we always forgot the movement on the word hear especially myself as I didn't realise we had this movement until it was fully ingrained into everyone else's movements so I couldn't ask for an amendment.
At the line "Ripe to drop" we said that we'd put our arms down at the word drop but it's evident we didn't do this. I think there was a general lack of rehearsal for this section in rehearsal which made us forget when we were going to be moving. Again this is because this part of the scene was in between the big body of this scene and the following scene which meant we spent a reduced time going over this section.
3) Before Dinner - 4:58 - 5:53
As with the previous scenes, the section between scenes is largely undefined. This can be seen with this scene as I immediately have a fumble with my arm as I don't put it up at the same time as Izzy does. There was no clarification in the rehearsal process when we were going to do this action - I am beginning to think there was a slight lack of communication in the rehearsal process most probably because we all had a different idea of how we wanted the piece to look which brought up some differences in our performance style.
There are some really excellent parts within this scene. For example, I have good externalisation at the "Go down on Hitler" line shown by an excellent facial mask - I think I definitely embodied the role of the Chorus excellently in this scene as my movements are certainly reminiscent of a stereotypical Cockney man in this scene. Moreover, the vocal contrast between "Aggro" and "Tiz" showed a clear definition between sections. Kathryn and I forgot to put our arms in and out at Izzy's line of "I had to escape this cruddy flat..." which I think reduced the effectiveness of the box/trap movement that we'd encased Izzy in.
At my lines during and after "Her spotty apron.... darkie slave" I think my movement was an excellent addition that I included rather late in the rehearsal process which added a captivating sense to my portion of the scene which was lacking somewhat before. However, I needed to be more defined and succinct with my actions and I should have set words when I was going to do these actions. Although, it should be taken into account that I had to slow my speech down so that my cast members could bring their chairs on. This did allow for a variation in pace between the quicker pace before and after the slower paced section we have here.
4) Dinner - 5:53 - 7:31
The first issue that presented itself in this scene was that Maya placed the chair in front of me the worn way round but this was easily rectified. My own personal issue throughout this scene was, again, a lack of externalisation especially when I wasn't saying any of my lines. My major mistake also happened in this scene where I swapped the lines "More taters love" and "More cake love" around which caused an issue for Kathryn's following line but she easily solved this.
I think my droning tone/accent was excellent in this scene as it presented a direct contrast between the other characters I had. However, I lost continuation as when I was playing Mum in a previous scene I didn't have this droning tone. At the end of the scene, my instant switch from Mum to Chrous was easily identifiable to the audience as it was defined well.
5) Leaving Home - 7:32 - 8:38
I think that in this scene there was a distinct lack of knowledge of what we were doing movement wise because this was the last scene that we blocked and was the one that we rehearsed the least despite there being a rather large lift in. The initial good aspect on my part was the use of Total Theatre as I moved the chair right to the back of the stage which also meant that there would be enough room for movement in the following Sphinx scene. The lack of externalisation is effective in this scene when I'm stood on the chair as it directly contrasts with the externalisation I make after the "Mould on cheese" line.
During the first part of the lift where Kathryn is walking across the stage, I put my hand out because I wasn't as involved in the lift. I thought that this could represent Mum waving goodbye to Eddy as he walks "to the end of the road" and it also gives the added support of me behind Kathryn if we did drop her. We nearly did drop her in the main section of the lift, something which is clearly visible - the lift is hard to attempt when only two people are holding another above their heads.
The last synchronised sequence in this scene was really well done by all and it worked because we spent a lot of time on that particular sequence.
Transition
The transition I think worked well because it was quick and there was no need for any extra lifts or large movement. The simplicity of removing clothes offstage is reminiscent of Brecht which was one of Berkoff's influences where nothing is hidden from the audience. The noises that we made as well easily showed the audience that we were changing character and distracted them from us removing costume.
6) Sphinx - 8:38 - 11:21
The immediate change in tone was brilliant in showing the audience the change in character but I do think it got a bit grating for the audience and for myself as the scene progressed. The death at the end was well thought out especially the added humour with the spurts of blood.
At "Mistake in the middle of the night" I forgot to do my gesturing at crotch movement and so my timing was different from everyone else's. Moreover, the movement through the legs was not as defined as I would have wanted it to be. We also spent too long in the faces at the back of the stage (using Total Theatre) and I think my facial expression was not as feminine as it should have been which removes the element of character development I had decided on. The facial expression I used does make her look terrifying to Eddy though. There was a lack of clarification at "Who could even kiss that mouth of yours?" which took away from the impressive movement of the mouth.
Overall
Positives:
1) The variation in tone was well differentiated between each character I played. I also improved upon the clarity of speech from the previous run-throughs which enabled a greater audience understanding.
2) The costume we used allowed for a difference in character, showing the audience what our main character was in each section.
3) The movement was overall okay as most of the staccato was done at the same time but could have been better if we had clarified what word we were moving on.
4) The sound effects were at the right volume to make an impact but didn't drown out what was being said.
Negatives:
1) The staging was not as good as I would have hoped reducing the positive effect of Total Theatre. We didn't have that much time in the space so our moved were confined to centre stage when we could have moved out a lot more. During the piece we could have used our initiative to do this.
2) My externalisation was not as good as I wanted. There were some points where I wasn't emanating anything at all or I wasn't reacting to the things that were happening onstage when I wasn't in the main movement.
3) We didn't focus on the transitions between scenes so there was a lack of clarification.
